Hospitalist Highlight: Sarguni Singh MD, FHM
Q&A
Aug 29, 2024
Dr. Sarguni Singh is an associate professor at the Division of Hospital Medicine here at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She was recently featured in a CU Department of Medicine blog highlighting her work on studying the ALIGN intervention for patients and their caregivers. Click here to read the full article 'An Intervention to Help With Post-Hospital Care of Older Cancer Patients'.
To learn a little more about the background of this project and what we can expect from Dr. Singh, we asked her a few questions about the ALIGN intervention. Read her Q&A below!
Q: What excited you most about this project and research on ALIGN intervention?
A: I think what was most exciting was seeing how palliative care social workers could better address the needs of hospitalized older adults with cancer and their care partners after they are discharged to a skilled nursing facility. We know this time period is comprised of complex medical decision-making that can be distressing for patients and their families while facing challenges navigating the healthcare system through multiple care transitions. We learned four key ways palliative care social workers were instrumental in providing increased support during this time. First, they helped patients and their care partners reconcile misaligned expectations they had about the functional gains a rehab stay might provide with the reality of a patient’s progressive illness. Second, the palliative care social workers helped patients and care partners manage uncertainty and distress about future medical decision-making. Third, they led iterative value-based goals of care decisions during a time when many patients were reconsidering their preferences for care. Last, the palliative care social workers empowered patients and care partners to advocate for their needs with other members of their care teams in the healthcare system.
Q: What are you working on now/what can we expect from you in the future? This doesn’t necessarily need to be related to this project.
A: Our research team is preparing to conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial of the ALIGN intervention. We hope to better understand how we can best implement this intervention in community skilled nursing facilities and how to better prepare care partners for potential roles as surrogate decision-makers. We will also explore preliminary impacts that ALIGN may have on improving person-centered outcomes, such as quality of life and distress, and decreasing unwanted health care utilization near the end of life.
Thank you for reading our hospitalist highlight on Dr. Sarguni Singh!