The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Updates in Hospice and Palliative Care and Intensive Physician Board Review 2025

Introduction

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Updates in Hospice and Palliative Care and Intensive Physician Board Review 2025 is an advanced educational program dedicated to contemporary palliative medicine, hospice care, symptom management, and physician board preparation. Developed by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, this intensive virtual course provides clinicians with a comprehensive review of modern hospice and palliative medicine through evidence-informed lectures, bedside-oriented clinical discussions, interdisciplinary perspectives, and board-focused educational sessions.

As serious illness care becomes increasingly integrated into oncology, intensive care, neurology, geriatrics, and chronic disease management, clinicians must develop expertise not only in symptom control, but also in communication, ethical decision-making, psychosocial care, prognostication, and interdisciplinary collaboration. This course addresses those challenges through a clinically practical curriculum focused on real-world patient care across advanced cancer, chronic organ failure, neurodegenerative disease, and other life-limiting illnesses.

Structured to support preparation for the ABIM Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) board examination, the program combines high-yield board review with practical patient-centered education relevant to inpatient palliative care, outpatient supportive oncology, ICU consultation, hospice medicine, and longitudinal serious illness management.

Files Included

The MD Anderson Hospice and Palliative Care Board Review 2025 educational package includes comprehensive palliative medicine and hospice care learning materials optimized for self-paced professional education.

Included resources may consist of:

• Comprehensive hospice and palliative medicine curriculum
• Advanced symptom management lectures
• Board review-focused educational sessions
• ICU and end-of-life care discussions
• Ethical and legal decision-making reviews
• Communication and psychosocial care modules
• Supportive oncology educational content
• Evidence-informed pain management learning materials

These materials support board preparation, clinical education, and advanced interdisciplinary palliative care training.

Why This Course Is Important

Palliative medicine has become an increasingly essential component of modern healthcare as patients with cancer, chronic organ failure, neurologic disease, and multisystem illness live longer with complex symptom burdens and evolving treatment needs. Clinicians are now expected to manage difficult symptoms, facilitate emotionally complex conversations, address psychosocial suffering, navigate ethical dilemmas, and coordinate interdisciplinary care while maintaining patient dignity and quality of life.

At the same time, advances in oncology, intensive care, transplantation, immunotherapy, and chronic disease treatment have created new challenges involving symptom management, treatment toxicities, opioid stewardship, communication under uncertainty, and end-of-life decision-making.

The MD Anderson Updates in Hospice and Palliative Care and Intensive Physician Board Review 2025 addresses these realities through a highly practical educational framework emphasizing bedside management strategies, communication skills, ethical reasoning, interdisciplinary care coordination, and individualized symptom management approaches relevant to contemporary palliative medicine practice.

What Participants Will Learn

Participants completing this course will strengthen their understanding of hospice and palliative medicine, advanced symptom management, and serious illness communication strategies.

Learning objectives include:

• Applying advanced pain management and opioid stewardship principles
• Understanding opioid selection, titration, and opioid rotation strategies
• Managing complex symptoms including dyspnea, delirium, cachexia, fatigue, nausea, and bowel obstruction
• Facilitating goals-of-care discussions and advance care planning conversations
• Delivering difficult news and navigating prognostic uncertainty
• Applying ethical and legal frameworks in serious illness care
• Understanding ICU palliative medicine and end-of-life transitions in critical care settings
• Managing psychosocial distress, anxiety, depression, grief, and bereavement
• Understanding pediatric and geriatric palliative medicine considerations
• Reviewing supportive oncology and cancer treatment toxicity management
• Strengthening preparation for the ABIM Hospice and Palliative Medicine board examination

The curriculum integrates symptom management, communication, ethics, supportive oncology, hospice medicine, and interdisciplinary serious illness care into a comprehensive educational experience.

Full Course Topics & Lectures

Advanced Pain Management & Opioid Stewardship

Opioid Selection and Titration

Opioid Rotation

Adjuvant Analgesics

Interventional Pain Management

Opioid-Induced Neurotoxicity

Risk Mitigation Strategies

Non-Medical Opioid Use Concerns

Integrative Pain Management

Symptom Management Beyond Pain

Dyspnea Management

Cough Management

Fatigue in Advanced Illness

Delirium Management

Cachexia and Nutritional Challenges

Nausea and Vomiting

Constipation and Bowel Obstruction

Sleep Disturbance

Xerostomia

Pruritus

Communication & Serious Illness Conversations

Goals-of-Care Discussions

Prognostic Communication

Delivering Difficult News

Advance Care Planning

Family Conflict Resolution

End-of-Life Decision-Making

Ethical & Legal Decision-Making

Capacity Assessment

Surrogate Decision-Making

Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment

Ethical Dilemmas in Advanced Illness

Hospice Eligibility

Legal Considerations in End-of-Life Care

Medical Futility Discussions

ICU Palliative Medicine

Ventilator Weaning

ICU Symptom Management

Prognostication in Critical Illness

Family Communication in the ICU

End-of-Life Transitions in Intensive Care

ICU Escalation Decisions

Disease-Specific Palliative Care

Cardiac Disease Palliative Care

Renal Disease Palliative Care

Neurologic Disorder Symptom Management

AIDS/HIV-Related Serious Illness Care

Supportive Oncology Approaches

Pediatric & Geriatric Palliative Medicine

Pediatric Palliative Care

Geriatric Symptom Management

Developmental Considerations in Serious Illness

Age-Specific Communication Strategies

Psychosocial, Spiritual & Bereavement Care

Spiritual Care in Advanced Illness

Anxiety and Depression at End of Life

Grief and Bereavement Support

Burnout Prevention

Interdisciplinary Teamwork

Supportive Oncology & Cancer Treatment Toxicities

Chemotherapy Toxicity Management

Radiation Therapy Complications

Targeted Therapy Adverse Effects

Immunotherapy-Related Symptoms

Board Review & Examination Preparation

High-Yield Hospice and Palliative Medicine Concepts

Board Examination Strategies

Clinical Frameworks and Rapid Review

Case-Based Reasoning

How to Take the Exam

Educational Experience & Learning Features

The MD Anderson Hospice and Palliative Care Board Review 2025 combines advanced palliative medicine education with clinically practical symptom management and board-focused learning strategies.

Educational features include:

• Expert-led hospice and palliative medicine lectures
• Advanced pain management education
• ICU and end-of-life care discussions
• Communication and psychosocial care training
• Ethical and legal decision-making reviews
• Board review-focused educational sessions
• Interdisciplinary palliative care discussions
• Supportive oncology and symptom management education
• Case-based clinical reasoning and bedside management strategies
• Self-paced virtual learning flexibility

The curriculum integrates supportive care, hospice medicine, communication skills, ethics, symptom control, and interdisciplinary serious illness management into a clinically practical educational platform.

Who Should Take This Course

The MD Anderson Updates in Hospice and Palliative Care and Intensive Physician Board Review 2025 is intended for clinicians involved in serious illness care, supportive oncology, and palliative medicine.

This course is especially valuable for:

• Palliative care physicians
• Hospice medicine specialists
• Oncologists
• Hospitalists
• Intensivists
• Internal medicine physicians
• Geriatricians
• Advanced practice providers in palliative medicine
• Physicians preparing for the ABIM Hospice and Palliative Medicine board examination
• Clinicians involved in serious illness communication and end-of-life care

The curriculum is particularly relevant for healthcare professionals seeking advanced education in symptom management, hospice medicine, communication strategies, ethics, and interdisciplinary palliative care.

Clinical Applications & Practice Benefits

The course provides clinically relevant education focused on improving symptom management, serious illness communication, and interdisciplinary patient care.

Participants gain practical insight into:

• Complex pain management and opioid stewardship
• Dyspnea, delirium, nausea, fatigue, and cachexia management
• Goals-of-care conversations and prognostic communication
• ICU palliative care integration
• Ethical decision-making in advanced illness
• Supportive oncology and treatment toxicity management
• Psychosocial and spiritual care approaches
• Hospice eligibility and end-of-life transitions
• Interdisciplinary coordination in serious illness care

The educational content strengthens compassionate clinical reasoning while supporting improved patient-centered care and board certification preparedness.

Professional Summary

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Updates in Hospice and Palliative Care and Intensive Physician Board Review 2025 from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center provides one of the most comprehensive educational reviews available in modern hospice and palliative medicine. Combining symptom management, communication strategies, ethics, ICU palliative care, supportive oncology, and board-focused learning, the program delivers a broad review of serious illness care through expert-led instruction and clinically practical discussion.

From opioid management and delirium to prognostic communication, ventilator withdrawal, psychosocial support, pediatric palliative medicine, and interdisciplinary hospice care, the curriculum explores the full spectrum of contemporary palliative medicine with strong emphasis on bedside relevance and compassionate clinical care.

Its integration of board preparation, symptom management education, ethical reasoning, and interdisciplinary serious illness care makes this course a valuable educational resource for palliative care physicians, oncologists, intensivists, hospitalists, and clinicians seeking advanced expertise in hospice and palliative medicine.

  Topics

1. Adjuvants for Pain Management

2. Cachexia

3. Cancer Treatment Toxicities- Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Targeted Therapy, and Immunotherapy – Sonal Admane, MD

4. Challenging Conversations in Palliative Care

5. Delirium, and Opioid-Induced Neurotoxicity

6. Disease Specific Palliative Care I- Cardiac and Renal

7. Disease Specific Palliative Care II- Neurological, AIDS

8. Dyspnea and Cough

9. Ethical and Legal Decision Making

10. Fatigue

11. Geriatric Palliative Care

12. Grief & Bereavement

13. ICU II; and Ventilator Weaning – Kevin Madden, MD

14. Integrative Approaches to Manage Pain – Larry Driver, MD

15. Interdisciplinary team, Professionalism, Quality Improvement, Compliance, and Burnout – Suresh Reddy, MD

16. Interventions for the Management of Cancer Pain

17. Lunch- Meet the Professor – 01

18. Lunch- Meet the Professor- Pain Management and Opioid Case Discussions

19. Lunch- Meet the Professor

20. Management of Anxiety-Depression at the End-of-Life

21. Medicare Hospice Benefit

22. Medication Interactions – Matthew Clark, PharmD

23. Nausea-Constipation-Bowel Obstruction

24. Opioid Rotation

25. Opioid Safety, Non-Medical Opioid Use, and Risk Mitigation Strategies – Joseph Arthur MD

26. Opioids for Pain Management

27. Pain- Assessment and Principles

28. Palliative Care Emergencies

29. Palliative Care in the ICU – Kevin Madden, MD

30. Palliative Care in the Last Week of Life

31. Pediatric Palliative Care II – Kevin Madden, MD

32. Pediatric Palliative Care

33. Prognostication

34. Sleep Disturbance – Sriram Yennu MD

35. Spiritual Care

36. Welcome Introduction and General Overview of Course- How to Take the Exam

37. Wound Care-Pressure — Ulcers-Pruritis-Xerostomia