The Conversation: Dr Angelo E. Volandes, MD with Scott Cluthe on End of Life

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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.  Dr. Angelo
Volandes is 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. Angelo continues his work surrounding Advance Care
Planning (ACP), the process by which patients plan for future
medical care under circumstances of impaired decision-making. 
His 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.   There 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. Dr. 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.