updated 1d ago
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
This experiment of making mortality a medical experience is just decades old. It is young. And the evidence is it is failing.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
the issue isn’t merely a matter of financing. It arises from a still unresolved argument about what the function of medicine really is—what, in other words, we should and should not be paying for doctors to
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
“Culture has tremendous inertia,” he said. “That’s why it’s culture. It works because it lasts. Culture strangles innovation in the crib.”
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
One has to decide whether one’s fears or one’s hopes are what should matter most.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
On average, in Boult’s study, the geriatric services cost the hospital $1,350 more per person than the savings they produced, and Medicare, the insurer for the elderly, does not cover that cost.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
Somehow the concept didn’t occur to me, even when I saw people my own age die. I had a white coat on; they had a hospital gown.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
“Culture is the sum total of shared habits and expectations,” Thomas told me.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
The result: those who saw a palliative care specialist stopped chemotherapy sooner, entered hospice far earlier, experienced less suffering at the end of their lives—and they lived 25 percent longer. In other words, our decision making in medicine has failed so spectacularly that we have reached the point of actively inflicting harm on patients rat
... See morefrom Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago
Discussion had brought La Crosse’s end-of-life costs down to half the national average. It was that simple—and that complicated.
from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Bryan Sivak added 2mo ago