Vermont made history today!

The Vermont House and Senate both approved the same version of a law based on Oregon's model Death with Dignity legislation, and the bill now heads to the governor's desk for signature. In the past, Governor Shumlin has indicated he'll sign the bill if it reaches his desk. With the Governor's signature, Vermont becomes the third state with an assisted dying law and the first state to enact this law through a legislative process. A historic achievement.

This achievement comes after over 10 years of diligent work by our partners, Patient Choices Vermont. In August of 2002, dedicated volunteer Dick Walters brought together a group of Vermonters who wanted their state to allow the same rights Oregonians had because of the groundbreaking Death with Dignity Act. Knowing he needed to consult experts in passing this sort of law, he contacted the only organization which had successfully written and passed such a law: Oregon Death with Dignity, the predecessor of the Death with Dignity National Center.

We've spotlighted several of our staff members. Today, we would like to shine the light on one of our board members, Betty Rollin.

Betty Rollin is a TV correspondent, accomplished author, and sought-after speaker. A former correspondent for NBC News, her special reports for Nightly News included a series on the Native Americans of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, which won both the duPont and Emmy awards. She now contributes reports for PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.

Rollin is the author of seven books, including First, You Cry, a moving story—the first of its kind—about her breast cancer and mastectomy. Published in 1976 and re-published in 2000 in honor of the author's 25th "cancer anniversary", it received wide critical acclaim and was made into a television movie starring Mary Tyler Moore as Ms. Rollin.

There's no question: losing an election is painful. Looking around the room on election night at the dejected volunteers and staff members who had invested hours of time and energy in the Massachusetts Dignity 2012 campaign, I knew there would be a necessary re-building and healing time.

As an individual who's looked up to for leadership in our movement, I had to quickly recover from my own disappointments and act like the role model I'm viewed as. Easier said than done, I learned.

I read a book about struggling at work, and I was reminded struggles are the result of taking a chance, of doing something new and different outside of one's comfort zone. I spent some time reading leadership advice from sports greats, and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky said it most clearly, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

The recovery was slow, but the most difficult part has passed. When I look at the activity all over the nation, I know the loss in Massachusetts marked the precipice of monumental change for the movement. We're involved in active campaigns all over New England. Groundbreaking Death with Dignity policy reform is underway in Vermont; New Jersey is considering a referendum to put Death with Dignity on the ballot for voters to decide. Connecticut is making a serious legislative attempt at policy reform, as is Massachusetts. Groups are organizing in Maine for a ballot initiative.

Change is on the horizon.

Like many workplaces around the world, productivity in the offices of the Death with Dignity National Center plummeted earlier this week, as our employees were engaged in the news coverage of the selection of the new pope. The selection and revealing of the new pontiff were the general topics of conversation throughout the day, and our work time together concluded with an energetic round of conclave trivia.

Interesting, I thought, for an organization whose main detractor is the Catholic Church; interesting for an organization whose main program over the past four years was derailed at the last minute by a spending spree by the Catholic Church and Catholic entities. Why were we captivated by the activities of those responsible for stamping out the reforms we're trying so hard to achieve?

New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association raises more questions about patterns in end-of-life care than it answers. Nine researchers teamed up to explore data from Medicare beneficiaries in an attempt to describe changes occurring between 2000 and 2009 in three important areas for those who are terminally ill: site of death, place of care during the last months of life, and number of transitions between healthcare facilities at the end of life.

Acknowledging prior studies had demonstrated an increase in the number of people dying at home and an increase in hospice usage, the researchers asked the (somewhat) rhetorical question, "Is this evidence of the success of hospice- and hospital-based palliative care teams?" Their findings suggest the answer might be "maybe" or "maybe not"—a not-so-resoundingly affirmative response to an important question.

The researchers explored information contained in a complex Medicare database, looking at records from more than 800,000 Medicare beneficiaries who died in 2000, 2005 or 2009. Data represent a random sample of those 66 or older who had a diagnosis of cancer, COPD or dementia in the last six months of their lives.

So, what were their findings?