Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot....

"Hospital-Based Palliative Medicine: A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach focuses on improving a Hospitalist's ability to provide quality palliative care in the inpatient hospital setting. Although several large textbooks exist for the palliative care provider, there are few detailed resources aimed specifically at the general Hospitalist and hospital-based staff. Existing textbooks dedicate at most only one chapter to palliative care and they lack...