The most recent issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine included several interesting articles about the role of geriatrics and palliative care in the emergency department . In the spirit of full disclosure, I wrote one of the articles in collaboration with a group from Harvard, and the intersection of geriatrics, palliative medicine, and emergency department care is a special interest of mine. My study used focus groups with emergency medicine providers (doctors, nurses, social workers, ED technicians) to explore perspectives of palliative care in the emergency department. We found emergency medicine providers were surprised to find that palliative care could be delivered simultaneously with life-prolonging care, that communication with outpatient providers was a major concern, and that providers sought additional skills training in communication and pain and symptom management . We described several poignant stories of emergency care gone awry , due to failures of communication, confl