In Cameroon, Poor People With Severe Albinism-related Skin Disorders Get Free Treatment

Uganda has the best quality of death among low-income countries, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit. Its success stems in part from the strictly regulated but available supply of morphine, which is distributed by pharmacists in labeled bottles.

The palliative care system in Kerala, India, has been singled out as a beacon of hope in offering the possibility of a dignified death to everyone by safely providing morphine.

Despite years of change, African Americans feel ostracized from the medical care community that is dominated mainly by white people, especially when it comes to hospices. Some are trying to remove the stigma of hospice care as well as make health care systems more fair.

A hospice patient's end-of-life desires are most often thwarted when well-meaning loved ones see the patient in some sort of distress. New programs ask first-responder paramedics to work with hospice programs to better honor a person’s end-of-life wishes.

These days, most rural communities in the U.S. are elderly communities - 15 percent of Wyoming’s population is over 65 and a high percentage of them live on ranches in small towns. New caregiver programs allow seniors to continue living at home and to keep doing what they are able, with assistance provided if needed.

Patients' last years of life are the most expensive for the health care system. For a fifth of the cost, a Zen hospice program, in San Francisco, is helping those who are dying improve their quality of death by enjoying the present.

Often it is faster and easier to harvest molecules for medical purposes from nature than to make them in a laboratory. A scientist is looking for cancer-fighting molecules in coral and sponges in the tropical Pacific.

The human papillomavirus is a primary cause of cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine has reduced the rate of infection by half in recent years among teenagers. However, the vaccine has still encountered resistance by some social conservatives.

People who are homeless and have a terminal illness usually end up in the emergency room which is more expensive and less effective. The UW Medicine’s Harboview Medical Center is the first U.S. program that sends mobile teams to provide palliative care, comfort care, to homeless people facing terminal illness.

End of life planning is a thorny issue, but a pre-hospice program in San Diego is working to address the tough conversations and place seniors in care for their final years. They found that by bringing care to patients in their homes, they save patients’ emergency hospital visits and save the system money. Medicare and insurance don't usually pay for in-home palliative care, but companies that work with the Affordable Care Act are using creative financing to offer quality care without added expense.