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It's heartening to see further discussion in the media about end of life care issues. While much progress still needs to come, this article is a leap forward for NY residents with the New York Palliative Care Information Act. Assistance navigating the healthcare system and making good choices in medical care that offers meaning and value is a hugely important issue. Informed consent involves detailing patient choices and having a discussion about the best choices in care management given the severity of their disease. Since physicians and other healthcare practitioners are not having these conversations with their patients, requiring them to do so will change the landscape. This ultimately is a patient centered activity that makes practitioners uncomfortable, but I suspect over time, the discomfort will abate!
Personal Health - New York Law Encourages Frank Talk on Palliative Care - NYTimes.com
Article Source: The New York Times- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (3)
Also last week, a study in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that among 151 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic lung cancer, those who received palliative care, which is care focused on symptoms, along with standard cancer therapy had a better quality of life, experienced less depression, were less likely to receive aggressive end-of-life care and lived nearly three months longer than those who received cancer treatment alone.
It is for this reason, articles like this, and actions to get Doctors to talk to their patients about end of life issues is needed in every state. I applaud NY to start the discussion on this topic.
- 1 vote
#1 - Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:32 PM EDTYes, a number of other reasons to go the palliative route, it seems to be a best practice with the most effective outcome, to concentrate on managing people's symptoms and improving the quality of their lifes rather than bombarding them with treatments that don't offer any value.
- 1 vote
#2 - Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:56 AM EDTThis is a discussion the other states need to have. We have had talks in my family for the last 30 years at least on what my parents wanted as well as my siblings.
But something else is needed. My siblings and I are entering the stages where one parent is slipping away due to dementia. A type of death, and the stress is unbearable at times. So the survivors need to be guided, helped as well and that is one thing that is usually forgotten.
#3 - Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:01 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
