When Not to Follow an Advance Directive
May 27, 2013
by: Eric Widera (@ewidera) An 85-year-old woman with moderate Alzheimer’s disease who enjoys walking in her nursing home’s garden with…
CPR Discussions and Harm Reduction
May 26, 2013
By: Bree Johnston One issue that I think we have not examined sufficiently is the impact that repeated discussions about…
Discussing CPR: What Makes It So Different?
May 24, 2013
by: Josh Lakin, MD Palliative Care Fellow, UCSF This week has been full of active discussion around “the code”. As…
What Is A “Natural” Death, Anyway?
May 23, 2013
by: Alex Smith, @alexsmithMD Eric kicked off the week posting about a study comparing use of the phrase “Allow Natural…
The Clinician as the Choice Architect – Nudging an Informed Choice About CPR
May 23, 2013
by: Eric Widera (@ewidera) In the first two posts of “code discussion week” we talked about how preferences for cardiopulmonary…
Changing the Default Code Status to DNR for Seriously Ill Patients
May 21, 2013
by: Alex Smith @alexsmithMD What if the above form was the default for patients with serious illness? Most current advance directive…
It’s all in the Framing: How to Influence Surrogates’ Code Status Decisions
May 20, 2013
by: Eric Widera (@ewidera) We intuitively know that the words we choose when talking about whether or not to attempt…
When Staying Silent is No Longer Acceptable
May 9, 2013
A Guantanamo detainee’s feet are shackled to the floor, April 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Michelle Shephard, Pool) (Credit: Associated Press) Recent…
#AGS13: Views of Geriatrics and Palliative Care from Four Continents
April 30, 2013
This years’ American Geriatrics Society (AGS) meeting in Grapevine, Texas, is fast approaching. The schedule is jam packed with great…
Do patients need to know they are terminally ill?
April 26, 2013
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has published a couple of interesting pieces this week that might interest you (controversy alert…