***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: OBJECTIVES --To measure effects on terminally ill cancer patients and their families of coordinating the services available within the NHS and from local authorities and the voluntary sector . DESIGN --R and omised controlled trial . SETTING --Inner London health district . PATIENTS --Cancer patients were routinely notified from 1987 to 1990 . 554 patients expected to survive less than one year entered the trial and were r and omly allocated to a coordination or a control group . INTERVENTION -- All patients received routinely available services . Coordination group patients received the assistance of two nurse coordinators , whose role was to ensure that patients received appropriate and well coordinated services , tailored to their individual needs and circumstances . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES -- Patients and carers were interviewed at home on entry to the trial and at intervals until death . Interviews after bereavement were also conducted . Outcome measures included the presence and severity of physical symptoms , psychiatric morbidity , use of and satisfaction with services , and carers ' problems . Results from the baseline interview , the interview closest to death , and the interview after bereavement were analysed . RESULTS --Few differences between groups were significant . Coordination group patients were less likely to suffer from vomiting , were more likely to report effective treatment for it , and less likely to be concerned about having an itchy skin . Their carers were more likely to report that in the last week of life the patient had had a cough and had had effective treatment for constipation , and they were less likely to rate the patient 's difficulty swallowing as severe or to report effective treatment for anxiety . Coordination group patients were more likely to have seen a chiropodist and their carers were more likely to contact a specialist nurse in a night time emergency . These carers were less likely to feel angry about the death of the patient . CONCLUSIONS --This coordinating service made little difference to patient or family outcomes , perhaps because the service did not have a budget with which it could obtain services or because the professional skills of the nurse-coordinators may have conflicted with the requirements of the coordinating role OBJECTIVE To examine factors associated with family satisfaction with end-of-life care in the Study to Underst and Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatments ( SUPPORT ) . DESIGN A prospect i ve cohort study with patients r and omized to either usual care or an intervention that included clinical nurse specialists to assist in symptom control and facilitation of communication and decision-making . SETTING Five teaching hospitals in the United States . PARTICIPANTS Family members and other surrogate respondents for 767 seriously ill hospitalized adults who died . MEASUREMENTS Eight question naire items regarding satisfaction with the patient 's medical care expressed as two scores , one measuring satisfaction with patient comfort and the other measuring satisfaction with communication and decision-making . RESULTS Sixteen percent of respondents reported dissatisfaction with patient comfort and 30 % reported dissatisfaction with communication and decision-making . Factors found to be significantly associated with satisfaction with communication and decision-making were hospital site , whether death occurred during the index hospitalization ( adjusted odds ratio ( AOR ) 2.2 , 95 % CI , 1.3 - 3.9 ) , and for patients who died following discharge , whether the patient received the SUPPORT intervention ( AOR 2.0 , 1.2 - 3.2 ) . For satisfaction with comfort , male surrogates reported less satisfaction ( 0.6 , 0.4 - 1.0 ) , surrogates who reported patients ' preferences were followed moderately to not at all had less satisfaction ( 0.2 , 0.1 - 0.4 ) , and surrogates who reported the patient 's illness had greater effect on family finances had less satisfaction ( 0.4 , 0.2 - 0.8 ) . CONCLUSIONS Satisfaction scores suggest the need for improvement in end-of-life care , especially in communication and decision making . Further research is needed to underst and how factors affect satisfaction with end-of-life care . An intervention like that used in SUPPORT may help family members Reports of cluster r and omised trials require additional information to allow readers to interpret them accurately The effective reporting of r and omised controlled trials has received useful attention in recent years . Many journals now require that reports conform to the guidelines in the Consoli date d St and ards of Reporting Trials ( CONSORT ) statement , first published in 1996 and revised in 2001 . The statement includes a checklist of items that should be included in the trial report . These items are evidence based whenever possible and are regularly review ed . The statement also recommends including a flow diagram to show the flow of participants from group assignment through to the final analysis . The CONSORT statement focused on reporting parallel group r and omised trials in which individual participants are r and omly assigned to study groups . However , in some situations it is preferable to r and omly assign groups of individuals ( such as families or medical practice s ) rather than individuals . Reasons include the threat of contamination of some interventions ( such as dietary interventions ) if individual r and omisation is used . 5 Also , in certain setting s r and omisation by group may be the only feasible method of conducting a trial . Trials with this design are variously known as field trials , community based trials , place based trials , or ( as in this paper ) cluster r and omised trials . In an earlier discussion paper we considered the implication s of the CONSORT statement for the reporting of cluster r and omised trials . Here we present up date d guidance , based on the 2001 revision of the CONSORT statement Objective : To assess the effectiveness of nurse led follow up in the management of patients with lung cancer . Design : R and omised controlled trial . Setting : Specialist cancer hospital and three cancer units in southeastern Engl and Participants : 203 patients with lung cancer who had completed their initial treatment and were expected to survive for at least 3 months . Intervention : Nurse led follow up of out patients compared with conventional medical follow up . Outcome measures : Quality of life , patients ' satisfaction , general practitioners ' satisfaction , survival , symptom-free survival , progression-free survival , use of re sources , and comparison of costs . Results : Patient acceptability of nurse led follow up was high : 75 % ( 203/271 ) of eligible patients consented to participate . Patients who received the intervention had less severe dyspnoea at 3 months ( P=0.03 ) and had better scores for emotional functioning ( P=0.03 ) and less peripheral neuropathy ( P=0.05 ) at 12 months . Intervention group patients scored significantly better in most satisfaction subscales at 3 , 6 , and 12 months ( P<0.01 for all subscales at 3 months ) . No significant differences in general practitioners ' overall satisfaction were seen between the two groups . No differences were seen in survival or rates of objective progression , although nurses recorded progression of symptoms sooner than doctors ( P=0.01 ) . Intervention patients were more likely to die at home rather than in a hospital or hospice ( P=0.04 ) , attended fewer consultations with a hospital doctor during the first 3 months ( P=0.004 ) , had fewer radiographs during the first 6 months ( P=0.04 ) , and had more radiotherapy within the first 3 months ( P=0.01 ) . No other differences were seen between the two groups in terms of the use of re sources . Conclusion : Nurse led follow up was acceptable to lung cancer patients and general practitioners and led to positive outcomes Abstract Objective : To evaluate a palliative care home support team based on an inpatient unit . Design : R and omised controlled trial with waiting list . Patients in the study group received the service immediately , those in the control group received it after one month . Main comparison point was at one month . Setting - A city of 300 000 people with a publicly funded home care service and about 200 general practitioners , most of whom provide home care . Main outcome measures : Pain and nausea levels were measured at entry to trial and at one month , as were quality of life for patients and care givers ' health . Results : Because of early deaths , problems with recruitment , and a low compliance rate for completion of question naires , the required sample size was not attained . Conclusion : In design ing evaluations of palliative care services , investigators should be prepared to deal with the following issues : attrition due to early death , opposition to r and omisation by patients and referral sources , ethical problems raised by r and omisation of dying patients , the appropriate timing of comparison points , and difficulties of collecting data from sick or exhausted patients and care givers . Investigators may choose to evaluate a service from various perspectives using different methods : controlled trials , qualitative studies , surveys , and audits . R and omised trials may prove to be impracticable for evaluation of palliative care OBJECTIVE To document outcomes of a r and omized trial of the PhoenixCare demonstration program of palliative care and coordinated care/case management for seriously chronically ill individuals who simultaneously received active treatment from managed care organizations ( MCOs ) . DESIGN Patients , continuously enrolled between July 1999 , and March 2001 , were r and omly assigned to the PhoenixCare program  or a control group receiving usual MCO care . SETTING Hospice of the Valley , Phoenix , Arizona . PARTICIPANTS Participants were 192 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) or chronic heart failure ( CHF ) , who had an estimated 2-year life expectancy . INTERVENTION Intensive home-based case management provided by registered nurse casemanagers , in coordination with patients ' existing source of medical care , comprised the intervention . Program foci included disease and symptom management , patient self-management of illness and knowledge of illness-related re sources , preparation for end-of life , physical and mental functioning , and utilization of medical services . OUTCOME MEASURES Outcomes , assessed every 3 months by telephone interview , included measures related to all program foci ; the SF-36 was used to evaluate physical and mental functioning ; emergency department visits exemplified medical service utilization . RESULTS Compared to controls , PhoenixCare patients exhibited significantly better outcomes on self-management of illness , awareness of illness-related re sources , and legal preparation for end of life . They reported lower symptom distress , greater vitality , better physical functioning and higher self-rated health than r and omized controls . Emergency department utilization was equivalent across groups . Patients with COPD showed stronger responsiveness to the intervention . CONCLUSION A novel model of patient care that combined greatly enhanced palliative carefocused case management with ongoing MCO-based treatment was associated with improved functioning of chronically severely ill patients in the last years of life BACKGROUND Little is known about the use of palliative care for out patients who continue to pursue treatment of their underlying disease or whether outpatient palliative medicine consultation teams improve clinical outcomes . METHODS We conducted a year-long controlled trial involving 50 intervention patients and 40 control patients in a general medicine outpatient clinic . Primary care physicians referred patients with advanced congestive heart failure , chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , or cancer who had a prognosis ranging from 1 to 5 years . In the intervention group , the primary care physicians received multiple palliative care team consultations , and patients received advance care planning , psychosocial support , and family caregiver training .  Clinical and health care utilization outcomes were assessed at 6 and 12 months . RESULTS Groups were similar at baseline . Similar numbers of patients died during the study year ( P = .63 ) . After the intervention , intervention group patients had less dyspnea ( P = .01 ) and anxiety ( P = .05 ) and improved sleep quality ( P = .05 ) and spiritual well-being ( P = .007 ) , but no change in pain ( P = .41 ) , depression ( P = .28 ) , quality of life ( P = .43 ) , or satisfaction with care ( P = .26 ) . Few patients received recommended analgesic or antidepressant medications . Intervention patients had decreased primary care ( P = .03 ) and urgent care visits ( P = .04 ) without an increase in emergency department visits , specialty clinic visits , hospitalizations , or number of days in the hospital . There were no differences in charges ( P = .80 ) . CONCLUSIONS Consultation by a palliative medicine team led to improved patient outcomes in dyspnea , anxiety , and spiritual well-being , but failed to improve pain or depression .  Palliative care for seriously ill out patients can be effective , but barriers to implementation must be explored CONTEXT Although home-based health care has grown over the past decade , its effectiveness remains controversial . A prior trial of Veterans Affairs ( VA ) Team-Managed Home-Based Primary Care ( TM/HBPC ) found favorable outcomes , but the replicability of the model and generalizability of the findings are unknown . OBJECTIVES To assess the impact of TM/HBPC on functional status , health-related quality of life ( HR-QoL ) , satisfaction with care , and cost of care . DESIGN AND SETTING Multisite r and omized controlled trial conducted from October 1994 to September 1998 in 16 VA medical centers with HBPC programs . PARTICIPANTS A total of 1966 patients with a mean age of 70 years who had 2 or more activities of daily living impairments or a terminal illness , congestive heart failure ( CHF ) , or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) .  Intervention Home-based primary care ( n=981 ) , including a primary care manager , 24-hour contact for patients , prior approval of hospital readmissions , and HBPC team participation in discharge planning , vs customary VA and private sector care ( n=985 ) . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patient functional status , patient and caregiver HR-QoL and satisfaction , caregiver burden , hospital readmissions , and costs over 12 months . RESULTS Functional status as assessed by the Barthel Index did not differ for terminal ( P=.40 ) or nonterminal ( those with severe disability or who had CHF or COPD ) ( P=.17 ) patients by treatment group . Significant improvements were seen in terminal TM/HBPC patients in HR-QoL scales 
    Output:
    
Only 4 of 13 studies assessing quality of life and 1 of 14 assessing symptoms showed a significant benefit of the intervention ; however , most studies lacked statistical power to report conclusive results , and quality -of-life measures were not specific for terminally ill patients .