Last night’s episode of the PBS NewsHour featured a seven-minute segment on the work of Dr. Michael Fratkin, the Humboldt County internist who last year launched a program called ResolutionCare that offers palliative care to people facing terminal illness. Fratkin often confers with his far-flung rural patients in their own homes through videoconferencing.

Fratkin recently told the Outpost that a NewsHour crew flew in to meet him in Garberville and followed him as he met with terminally ill patients around the county, even flying in a Cessna out to Shelter Cove to see a patient conferring with Fratkin from her laptop. 

The segment also features Rich Schlesiger, a former Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy suffering from a brain tumor, who sits with his family at their Fortuna home while consulting via laptop with both Fratkin, in Eureka, and his neuro-oncologist, at University of California, San Francisco.

ResolutionCare recently launched a pilot program to expand its in-home palliative care services through a collaboration with Partnership HealthPlan of California, a non-profit, community-based health care organization that contracts with the State to administer Medi-Cal benefits through local care providers.

One last thing: Some people find the PBS NewsHour a bit too staid. Boring, even. If only you could learn about the importance of palliative care to the tune of Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” (feat. Rihanna), right?

You’re in luck, thanks to the master of medical humor, the “Weird Al” of the hospital ward, the one-and-only ZDoggMD:

PREVIOUSLY:

• Local Doctor Launches Project Aimed at Transforming the Way We Approach Death
• AUDIO: California Report Covers Dr. Michael Fratkin’s End-of-Life Care Program
• Dr. Fratkin Reaches Crowdfunding Goal for End-of-Life Care Program