Fast Facts and Concepts provide concise, practical, peer-reviewed, and evidence-based summaries on key palliative care topics important to clinicians and trainees caring for patients facing serious illness.  They were started in 2000 by Eric Warm MD as a palliative care teaching tool for generalist clinicians at the University of Cincinnati. They were subsequently adopted as a standard feature of the National End-of-Life Residency Education Project, D Weissman, MD PI, (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).  Until 2014, Fast Facts published by the End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Center (EPERC; now closed) at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Since 2015, PCNOW has hosted Fast Facts and Concepts as part of their mission to promote palliative care education to generalist clinicians.

  • David Weissman, MD was the founding Editor-in-Chief in 2000.
  • Drew A Rosielle, MD was Editor-in-Chief from 2007 through 2014 and remains an Associate Editor.
  • Sean Marks, MD is the editor-in-Chief (since 2015).
  • Together, Dr. Rosielle and Dr. Marks are the Fast Fact Managing Directors.

While the individual authors of each Fast Fact are responsible for their content, all Fast Facts are peer-reviewed by the Fast Facts and Concepts Editorial Board, who volunteer their time to make sure Fast Facts are balanced, accurate, relevant, and well-written. Fast Facts wouldn’t exist without the efforts of the Editorial Board; please thank them if you run into them!

Editor-in-Chief: Sean Marks, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.

Associate Editor: Drew A. Rosielle, MD, University of Minnesota Health, Minneapolis, MN.

Robert Arnold, MD, Mount Sinai, New York, NY.

Laura Minikel, MD, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA.

Lynn McPherson, PharmD, MA, BCPS, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Sangeeta Lamba, MD, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

Kathleen Broglio DNP, FAANP, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH.

Olumuyiwa O. Adeboye, MD, MBA, Wellstar Health System, LaGrange, GA.

Stacy Remke, MSW, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Jenny Lau, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Constance Dahlin, MSN, ANP-BC, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, MA.

Ryan Jozwiak MD, Carelon Health, Geneva, IL.

Kate Lally MD – Harvard University, Boston MA.

Mackenzie Goertz PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.

Fast Facts are periodically updated; this is noted in its ‘Version History’ below the references in each individual Fast Fact. Please use caution and consult more up-to-date resources when making clinical decisions. In 2015, the entire library of Fast Facts was updated and revised. In 2024-2025, the first 350 Fast Facts were updated again. We would like to acknowledge the following authors for their help in this process in 2024-2025:

  • Melissa Atwood DO

  • Leslie Avant MD

  • Jordan Bauman MD

  • Jessica R Baumgarner NP

  • Jessica Besbris MD

  • Francois Blumenfeld Kouchner DO

  • Elizabeth Bukowy DO

  • Kerry Case MD

  • James Deming MD

  • Kendall Downer MD

  • James P Esteban MD

  • Jerome Graber MD

  • Lara India MD

  • Laura Johns MD

  • Ryan Jozwiak MD

  • Adrienne Klement MD

  • Andrew Lawton MD

  • Heidi Ludtke MD

  • Cole Macke MD

  • Adam Marks MD

  • June McKoy MD

  • Laura Minikel MD

  • Maria Olex PhD

  • Jamie Pfaff MD

  • Mary Rhodes MD

  • Kelly Stone NP

  • Rajiv Varandani MD

On our new website, we have developed a functionality to search for relevant Fast Facts by categories. One of the categories is “Age Friendly Care” with the subcategories based on the 4 Ms of Mobility, Mentation, what Matters, Medication?

So what is Age Friendly Care and why did we categorize Fast Facts that way?

Large foundations and organizations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The John A Hartford Foundation partnered to promote evidence-based care practices for patients older than 65 at all phases of their life. This means following evidence-based, Age Friendly Care principles that recognize the unique care considerations of this patient population. The underlying goal is to reduce iatrogenic harm and align medical care with what matters most with this patient population and their family caregivers.

Age Friendly Care principles apply to all phases of an older person’s lifecycle. This means that Age Friendly Care principles apply to serious illness care and terminal illness care too.

In partnership with a larger grant to promote Age Friendly Care principles across Wisconsin health care systems, we selected a curriculum of Fast Facts which provide evidence-based clinical information on key palliative care topics for older patients. We will continue to add to this curriculum over time with relevant newly published Fast Facts. These “Age Friendly Care” Fast Facts are now organized in an user-friendly way into subcategories based on the four pillars of Age Friendly Care called the “4Ms.”

  1. What Matters
  2. Medication
  3. Mentation
  4. Mobility

A separate series of electronically published Geratrics Fast Facts can be found at the following website: http://www.geriatricfastafacts.com/

Fast Facts and Concepts provide palliative care educational information for health care professionals. This information is not medical advice. Fast Facts are not continually updated, and new safety information may emerge after a Fast Fact is published. Health care providers should always exercise their own independent clinical judgment and consult other relevant and up-to-date experts and resources. Some Fast Facts cite the use of a product in a dosage, for an indication, or in a manner other than that recommended in the product labeling. Accordingly, the official prescribing information should be consulted before any such product is used.  The authors of each individual Fast Fact are responsible for its content.

The original EPERC website at the Medical College of Wisconsin was maintained by Judi Rehm and then Lisa Pelzek-Braun. The Fast Facts distribution for the palliative care community was maintained for over a decade by Rose Hackbarth, all from the Medical College of Wisconsin. The Center to Advance Palliative Care graciously hosted Fast Facts during a transition year in 2015. Fast Facts have been cross-published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine since 2008 and are indexed by Medline.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, for non-commercial educational purposes, and with proper attribution. At minimum this means including the authors’ names and the original publication information including a link to the PCNOW Fast Facts and Concepts website: www.mypcnow.org.

Additional Copyright Information

Fast Facts are a free palliative care educational resource and can be reprinted, with proper attribution, for non-commercial educational purposes.

  • Fast Facts are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike copyright.
  • If you plan on posting one or more Fast Facts to a website, please contact us and describe your organization and publication plans.
  • Independent publication of the entire collection of Fast Facts on a website other than mypcnow.org is not allowed due to the need to frequently update Fast Facts.
  • If you are using Fast Facts as part of a CME curriculum, please let us know.

If you are not sure if your reproduction of Fast Facts is appropriate by these guidelines, email the editor at smarks@mcw.edu

Fast Facts are published by number, month, and year (no volume or page numbers), and can be referenced a variety of ways depending on your preferred format. If a Fast Fact is published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine you can cite it as any other journal article. Examples include:

  • Bradley C, Brasel K. Fast Facts and Concepts #194. Disclosing Medical Error. December 2007. Available at: https://www.mypcnow.org
  • Bradley C, Brasel K. Disclosing medical error. Fast Facts and Concepts. December 2007; 194. Available at:  https://www.mypcnow.org

There are two ways. 1) Check the mypcnow.org website. New Fast Facts are generally published twice a month. 2) Subscribe to PCNOW for email notification and updates.

Readers can send feedback on Fast Facts to the editor Sean Marks MD at smarks@mcw.edu.

We encourage anyone to write a Fast Fact. Contact the editor at smarks@mcw.edu, with your idea prior to writing to ensure that your topic is not already in the pipeline of new Fast Facts.

The main educational aim of Fast Facts is to provide a concise teaching tool which hospice or palliative care clinicians can provide to generalist clinicians when they are struggling with a specific palliative care topic in clinical practice.  As such, focused topics that help generalist clinicians (e.g., primary care providers, house staff, hospitalists, medical students, non-palliative care specialists) provide better care for patients with serious illness are the best fit for Fast Facts.  Any topic which has to do with the supportive care of children or adults facing life-limiting diseases, or at the end of life. This can include pain and symptom management topics, disease specific topics (e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, congestive heart failure), prognostication, communication, decision-making, cultural and spiritual issues, ethics and public policy, location specific topics (e.g. hospices, nursing homes, intensive care units), as well as how caring for dying patients affects professionals and families.