About Fast Facts and Concepts
Fast Facts 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.
Fast Facts and Concepts were started in 2000 by Eric Warm MD as a palliative care teaching tool 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.
Leadership 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 the Associate Editor. Sean Marks MD has been Fast Facts’ Associate Editor since 2014 and the Editor-in-Chief since 2015. Together, Dr. Rosielle and Marks are the Fast Fact Managing Directors. Haipeng (Mark) Zhang DO, MMSc is the technical editor for Fast Facts.
Peer-Review 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, relevant and well-written. Fast Facts wouldn’t exist without the volunteer efforts of the Editorial Board; please thank them if you run into them!
Editorial Board
- Editor-in-Chief: Sean Marks MD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
- Associate Editor: Drew A Rosielle MD, University of Minnesota Health, Minneapolis, MN
- Associate Editor: Lara India MD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
- Technical Editor: Haipeng (Mark) Zhang DO, MMSc, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
- Robert Arnold, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
- Constance Dahlin MSN, ANP-BC North Shore Medical Center, Salem MA
- Sarah Friebert MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron OH
- Mihir M Kamdar MD, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
- Sangeetha Lamba MD, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
- Lynn McPherson, PharmD, MA, BCPS, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
- Kathleen Broglio, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire
- Stacy Remke LICSW, University of Minnesota School of Social Work, Minneapolis, MN
- Shayna Ritch MD, University of Florida
- Ramy Sedhom MD, Johns Hopkins University
- Olumuyiwa Adeboye, Omni Medical Group, Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Lau, Jenny, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Updates and Version History
Fast Facts are periodically updated, this is noted in its ‘Version History’ below the references. 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. We would like to acknowledge the following authors for their help in this process:
- Nathan Boucher DrPH
- Katherine Bylow MD
- Lindsay Dow MD
- Narendranath Epperla MD
- Renee Foutz MD
- Sarah Freibart MD
- Hunter Groninger MD
- Shannon Haliko MD
- Ann Helms MD
- Kimberly Johnson MD
- Candace Johnstone MD
- Samuel Maiser MD
- Lu Marchand MD
- Adam Marks MD
- Sean Marks MD
- Lynn McPherson PharmD
- Steven Oppenheimer MD
- Katherine Recka MD
- Mary Rhodes MD
- Drew Rosielle MD
- Christian Sinclair MD
- Elizabeth Thiel MD
- Charles von Gunten MD
- David Weissman MD
- Krista Wiger MD
- Stuart Wong MD
Copyright
See Fast Facts FAQ/Copyright Information
Android/IPhone/IPad
Fast facts are available as an app for iphone/ipad: visit the Itunes store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/palliative-care-fast-facts/id868472172?mt=8
For Android visit: http://www.getfastfacts.org/?m=1
Geriatrics Fast Facts
A separate series of electronically published Geratric Fast Facts can be found at the following website: http://www.geriatricfastafacts.com/
Disclaimer
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.
Please contact us if you notice something out of date or inaccurate in a Fast Fact:
Sean Marks MD, Fast Facts and Concepts Editor-in-Chief: smarks@mcw.edu
Drew A Rosielle MD, Fast Facts and Concepts Associate Editor: rosielle@umn.edu
Acknowledgements 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. Dr Charles von Gunten, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine, Ms. Lisa Pelzek, its Managing Editor, and Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers have continued to support Fast Facts for over a decade in this way.