SACRAMENTO―A comprehensive, web-based learning tool that features a series of interactive video vignettes to help healthcare professionals better understand end-of-life care and prepare them for difficult conversations with patients and families is now available online. The program, called “eDoctoring," is available at http://edoc.ucdavis.edu.
With funding from the National Cancer Institute to create a high-quality, multidisciplinary curriculum on end-of-life care, a consortium of University of California faculty, in collaboration with San Diego Hospice experts, developed the website. It represents the first standardized educational training for medical professionals to be developed and implemented by all five UC campuses, and it has been tested by more than 2,000 medical students and physicians.
The program offers engaging patient scenarios, informative tutorials and practical learning materials that address the challenges of providing appropriate and compassionate care at the end of life. Topics include pain management, improving communication with patients and family members, and ethical issues.
Michael Wilkes, the UC Davis professor of internal medicine and medical education expert who leads the project, said the new online program focuses on enabling caregivers to shift from disease-directed therapy, or therapy with curative intent, to being able to provide patients with relief from physical, emotional, social and spiritual suffering.
