In November 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) began a series of articles, "Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life," which examines challenges in caring for patients at the end of life.

An editorial team at the University of California, San Francisco's Division of General Internal Medicine created the series in cooperation with the editors of JAMA.

The project was part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) national program Targeted End-of-Life Projects Initiative.

The goal of the articles, according to the series introduction in the November 15, 2000 edition, was "to present practical, clinically useful, authoritative recommendations to clinicians in various specialties who care for patients at the end of life."

Key Results

• JAMA published 18 articles in the "Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life" series between November 2000 and May 2004.
• JAMA's editorial board designated four "Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life" articles for continuing medical education credits. The articles designated for credits were:
  • "Complexities in Prognostication in Advanced Cancer: 'To Help Them Live Their Lives the Way They Want To.'"
  • "Comprehensive Care for Late-Stage HIV/AIDS: Overcoming the False Dichotomy of 'Curative' vs. 'Palliative' Care. 'Let Me Live the Way I Want to Live, Until I Can't.'"
  • "Supporting Family Caregivers at the End of Life: 'They Don't Know What They Don't Know.'"
  • "Palliative Care for Patients with Heart Failure."
• The UCSF School of Medicine has used the series both in its own medical education and as part of a RWJF initiative, the Palliative Care Leadership Centers of the Center to Advance Palliative Care.

Funding
RWJF provided two grants totaling $515,509 to produce the series from May 2000 to April 2004.