Professionals in hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care increasingly care for dying patients with non-cancer diagnoses. In 2004, less than half of hospice admissions were for cancer diagnoses (46%); end-stage heart disease and dementia were the top two non-cancer diagnoses, accounting for 12.2% and 8.9%, respectively. Thus it is imperative for continuing education efforts to address the specific needs of dying patients with diverse conditions, and for research findings about palliative and end-of-life care for such conditions to be disseminated to the research and provider communities. The Center for Hospice, Palliative Care & End-of-Life Studies at the University of South Florida (The Center) seeks funding support to address the need for a research conference to disseminate current findings and to stimulate new research about the palliative and end-of-life care requirements for persons with diverse conditions, including dementia and heart disease, as well as cancer, which continues to account for the largest percentage of hospice admissions. The Center is a research center that has as its focus the health issues of individuals near the end-of-life and their families and caregivers. The Center is a community-academic partnership of multidisciplinary colleagues from USF; LifePath Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc.; The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast; Tidewell Hospice and Palliative Care; Hope of Southwest Florida; and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Center members work to generate new knowledge through interdisciplinary research, use that knowledge to educate health and human services professionals and students, and advocate for public policy that supports quality end-of-life care. The proposed conference, """"""""Building Bridges: Interdisciplinary Paths to Palliative & End-of-Life Care for People with Diverse Conditions (Cancer, Dementia, and Heart Disease)"""""""" will bring together researchers, care providers, administrators, policy makers and graduate students representing multiple disciplines and sites of care to disseminate state-of-the-art information about palliative and end-of-life care for individuals with diverse conditions. The conference will take place October 27- 28, 2006 in Tampa, Florida, and already has commitments from nationally and internationally known experts in the field to speak at plenary and breakout sessions. In addition, interdisciplinary panel discussions will feature multiple perspectives on aspects of end-of-life and palliative care unique to patients with cancer, dementia, and heart disease, and research papers and posters competitively selected through the Center's Call for Abstracts will allow conference attendees to be active participants in the ongoing dialogue about research priorities and improvements in clinical care. ? ? ?
