The Conversation: Dr Angelo E. Volandes, MD with Scott Cluthe on End of Life
b'Join Scott on FACEBOOK\\nFree Newsletter HERE\\xa0\\n\\n\\xa0\\n\\nScott Cluthe talks with Dr. Angelo Volandes, author of The Conversation, about the most difficult one spouses and/or family members will ever have to have: End of Life issues.\\xa0\\n\\nDr. Angelo Volandes\\xa0is a practicing internal medicine physician in the MGH Department of Medicine and a junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He is a Harvard College and Yale Medical School graduate.\\n\\n\\nAngelo continues his work surrounding Advance Care Planning (ACP), the process by which patients plan for future medical care under circumstances of impaired decision-making.\\xa0\\n\\n\\nHis study compared the preferences of patients after seeing a video depiction of a patient with advanced stage dementia, to those who received a verbal description of that health state.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nThere is an unspoken dark side of American medicine-keeping patients alive at any price. Two thirds of Americans die in healthcare institutions tethered to machines and tubes at bankrupting costs, even though research shows that most prefer to die at home in comfort, surrounded by loved ones.\\n\\nDr. Angelo E. Volandes believes that a life well lived deserves a good ending. Through the stories of seven patients and seven very different end-of-life experiences, he demonstrates that what people with a serious illness, who are approaching the end of their lives, need most is not new technologies but one simple thing: The Conversation. He argues for a radical re-envisioning of the patient-doctor relationship and offers ways for patients and their families to talk about this difficult issue.'