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Elderly Heart Failure Patients Choose Longevity Over Quality Of Life

Don’t assume elderly heart failure patients are assumed to prefer improved quality of life over longevity, study authors noted. The majority of them prefer longevity over quality of life, half expressed a desire for resuscitation if needed, and it was difficult to predict individual preferences.

Researchers looked at patients’ willingness to trade survival time for quality-of-life and the preferences for among 622 heart failure patients aged 60 or older participating in the Trial of Intensified vs. Standard Medical Therapy in Elderly Patients with Congestive Heart Failure.

End-of-life preferences were assessed by using a time trade-off tool and one question concerning CPR preference. To assess time trade-off, patients were asked whether they preferred living 2 years in their current state of health or living 1 year in excellent health. If 1 year in excellent health was chosen, the patients were asked whether they would prefer 2 years in their current state of health or 6 months in perfect health. If 2 years in the current state were chosen, then they were asked whether they would prefer 2 years in their current state of health or 18 months in perfect health. The series continued until the choices were the same. This time point subtracted from 24 months derived the number of months of survival time that the patient would be willing to trade.

End-of-life preferences were assessed at baseline, and at 12 and 18 months. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*

The Changing Priorities Of A New Generation Of Physicians

Doctors are, famously, workaholics. That’s just the way it’s been forever, at least as far back as my memory goes. You work crazy hours in residency, you graduate and work like a dog to establish your practice or to become a partner in your practice, and then you live out your career working long hours because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. I remember, growing up in the ’80s, that my friends whose parents were doctors were latchkey kids whose dad (usually the dad, then) was never at home when we were hanging out in the rec room playing Atari.

Yeah, Atari. Look it up, kids.

Not much had changed by the time I went to medical school. There was recognition of the fact that burnout was an issue — that divorces, alcohol abuse and suicides were more common among physicians than in other professions. The unspoken implication was that being a doctor was difficult and stressful, which increased the risk of these consequences of an over-burdened professional life. These stresses were accepted as part of the turf, as a necessary part of “being a doctor.” It wasn’t optional, and indeed, most physician teachers that addressed the matter chose to sublimate it into a mark of nobility. Being a physician was a calling and a duty, and a physician must gladly subordinate his or her own happiness and well-being to the service of their flock.

But things have changed, or at least a slow shift is in progress. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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