It’s no secret that medical care can carry a hefty price tag. Suffering from a serious illness requiring critical care can take a mental, physical, and financial toll – impacting the patient and their family. In the event of death, it can increase frustration on top of grief. So how do

Brian Celso, PhD, MBA, is an associate professor in the department of surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville. Celso has been at UF since 2003, following a 2005 fellowship in palliative medicine, it opened his eyes to the struggles of those patients and families.

“When people have a medical crisis, it puts their life in turmoil,” Celso said. “It also disrupts their finances significantly. I received an MBA and later trained to become a financial planner to help people deal with medical crises and what comes after. That’s where the idea came from.”

That idea – writing a book that would serve as a guide to both physicians delivering palliative care and their patients, with a goal for patients to stay afloat physically and financially during treatment and thereafter. He did that with the help of the Library Press at UF, the University of Florida’s open-access publishing arm of the George A. Smathers Libraries. The book, entitled Palliative Finances: It’s About Wealth, Not About Worth, was released in October and is available for free in a digital format.

This passion project came together over the course of 10 years. Celso says impacted families are generally trying to answer one main question.

“How do you deal with both the medical crisis and manage your finances?” Celso said. “Many times, what happens is people go bankrupt over the cost of medical care. This book acts as a resource on how to prepare their finances for medical treatment.”

Celso also tapped colleagues as co-authors, Mark McIntosh, MD, MPH, and Robert McIntosh, JD. Dr. Mark McIntosh is a professor of emergency medicine and the medical director of UF Health Employee Wellness. Dr. Robert McIntosh is a retired estate attorney.

“I often help patients and families make advance care decisions when facing serious illness, including end-of-life decisions,” said Dr. Mark McIntosh. “One of my goals is to ensure that patients receive medical care that is consistent with their values, goals, and preferences.  During these patient and family encounters, we as clinicians must strive to preserve dignity and minimize suffering across all life dimensions – physical, social, emotional and financial. This book will help clinicians better assist patients and families with making medical decisions that intersect with financial realities. This is treating the whole person.”

For Celso, this is about reaching the physicians and patients he may never encounter.

“This is something very dear to me,” Celso said. “I’ve been helping people dealing with these circumstances for a long time and this is my way of impacting people I may never meet but I can be a resource to them as they navigate their care.”

You can access Palliative Finances: It’s About Wealth, Not About Worth here.

LibraryPress@UF (LP@UF), is an imprint of the UF Press and the Smathers Libraries, dedicated to publishing open access scholarly journals and open educational resources (OERs) from UF-affiliates as open access monographs, edited volumes, and creative digital works that amplify the impact of the Libraries’ collections, and community- or partner-driven scholarship. LP@UF promotes widespread access to academic knowledge while adhering to ethical standards in scholarly publishing. Our initiatives, like accessibility, preservation, and sustainability, complement the efforts of the UF Press, collectively advancing the shared goals of the Libraries, Press, and UF. LP@UF issues a formal call for proposals and remains open to reviewing UF-affiliated scholarly publishing projects on a rolling basis. For LP@UF criteria and publications, please visit go.ufl.edu/librarypress or email librarypress@uflib.ufl.edu.