Palliative care teaching in medical residency: a review of two POGO-e teaching products.

This is a comparison review of GeriaSims and Care of the Aging Medical Patient (CHAMP) modules addressing issues in palliative and hospice medicine found in the Portal of Geriatric Online Education, a free on-line repository of geriatric educational materials for medical educators. GeriaSims is a self-directed teaching module designed to systematically address many of the important questions involved in caring for individuals with chronic progressive and life-limiting illnesses. It is well suited for physicians, particularly medical residents and fellows in-training, who provide care for medically complicated elderly and terminally ill individuals. The CHAMP module is designed to familiarize physician educators with palliative and hospice medicine basics to teach residents and fellows through didactic slides, although it can probably be adapted for use by residents and fellows if audio commentary accompanies the slides. Both modules address practical approaches to addressing palliative care in patients and their families. They are useful teaching tools that address an important learning need and can be readily used to supplement current residency curriculum in hospice and palliative medicine.