The only certainty in medicine is uncertainty. It touches every aspect of clinical practice, from diagnosis to treatment to prognosis…
Most health care providers understand the importance of goals-of-care conversations in aligning treatment plans with patients’ goals, especially for those…
Surrogate decision making has some issues. Surrogates often either don’t know what patients would want, or think they know but…
In today’s podcast we set the stage with the story of Dax Cowart, who in 1973 was a 25 year…
Serious illness communication is hard. We must often deliver complex medical information that carries heavy emotional weight in pressured settings…
Ambivalence is a tough concept when it comes to decision-making. On the one hand, when people have ambivalence but haven’t…
In 1983, a 25 year old Nancy Cruzan was thrown from her car while driving home in Missouri, landing in…
Anyone who cares for individuals with serious illness must live in a messy space where tough conversations about treatment decisions…
Do We Ask for Permission to Treat First? Or Treat first & Ask Questions Later? As we are educated on…
An innovative study in JAMA Internal Medicine on surrogate decision making has profound implications for how we take care of…