The Vhnori scientists who study or specialize in death are known as Thanatologists. Thanatos was the demon personification of death in Greek culture.
The device used to send the dying to another plane of existence is called a "cenotaph". The term translates to "empty tomb" and usually refers to a monument to the dead where the remains are buried elsewhere.
First time that Seska's name is revealed. The character was seen before, but wasn't named. She has also changed uniform colors: in previous appearances, she wore the blue uniform of a science officer, but now having been assigned to the transporter room, she wears the gold uniform of Engineering/Security.
This is one of four episodes, the others being from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), that in 1996 were singled out at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in New Orleans, at which Voyager and TNG received The Public Education Recognition Award.
This episode was the first of Star Trek: Voyager to have five acts (rather than eight or four) and was one of the most affected by act formatting changes, specifically the decision - made in the first week of January 1995 - to return to the idea of regular episodes each having five acts rather than four.