Next Avenue produced by Twin Cities PBS
Resources for Your Next Doctor Appointment
These letter templates have the potential to significantly improve your care
SCOPE by Stanford Medicine:
Who is the designated driver, or proxy, for your health decisions?
There will quite likely come a time in your life when you will just be too sick to make any decisions. When that time comes, doctors will turn to your “proxy” decision-maker. Your health care proxy is like a designated driver who takes over decision-making when you are unable to advocate for yourself.
The New York Times:
Talk to Your Doctor About Your Bucket List
A bucket list is an itemized list of goals people want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket” — or die. Making a bucket list allows us to reflect on our values and goals and identify important milestones and experiences that we want to have in our lifetime.
The New York Times:
Last Things First for Patients With Bucket Lists
If a new study is correct, more than 91 percent of us have a bucket list — things we wish to do before we die. This revelation is interesting on several levels, including a question of what that minority of nearly 9 percent is thinking. Surely those people are aware that the chance of their kicking the bucket is 100 percent...
Reuters:
‘Bucket lists’ might help with end-of-life discussions
(Reuters Health) - Sharing your “bucket list” could be easier than discussing end-of-life medical preferences, and it might be just as useful to your physician, researchers suggest. If you, like many Americans, have a “bucket list,” your doctor would be well-served by learning its contents, according to Stanford University researchers...
NBC News:
Barbara Bush is choosing 'comfort care.' What does it mean? More than you may think.
After several hospitalizations over recent years due to congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Barbara Bush (who also has Graves Disease) has elected to forego further medical treatment and instead focus on “comfort care,” a spokesperson for the Bush family said on Sunday.
Oakland Press Vitality:
Tell your doctor what’s on your bucket list
Your doctor can’t read your mind. A doctor assumes everyone wants to live and continue to live the best, healthiest, happiest life possible — but that means something for everyone. If your doctor knows about your long-term goals and “bucket list” items, however, that can be used to direct your health plan and goals.
Inside Stanford Medicine:
Talking to doctors about your bucket list could help advance care planning
For physicians, asking patients about their bucket lists, or whether they have one, can encourage discussion about making their medical care fit their life plans, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
MedicalXpress:
Talking to doctors about your bucket list could help advance care planning
For physicians, asking patients about their bucket lists, or whether they have one, can encourage discussion about making their medical care fit their life plans, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
ABC News:
Why you should chat with your doctor about your bucket list
A “bucket list” could be a roadmap for your doctor. A new study in the Journal of Palliative Medicine proposes that your bucket list, a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying, can become a shorthand for the goals-of-care conversation that everybody tiptoes around but one that is especially important as you age or develop chronic medical conditions.
CBS News:
Why you should talk to your doctor about your bucket list
Whether it's making your way to Paris, running a marathon, or being able to see your grandchild get married, new research suggests there's good reason to tell your doctor what's on your bucket list.
Researchers from Stanford say sharing these life goals with your physician can lead to a medical plan that better aligns with your priorities, and it may even help encourage healthier behavior.
WebMD:
Make a Bucket List -- Then Share It With Your Doc
If doctors know what's on their patients' bucket lists, it helps them provide personalized care and encourages patients to follow healthy lifestyles, said lead author Dr. V.J. Periyakoil, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford. She's a geriatrics and palliative care expert who says she routinely asks ...
FierceHealthcare:
What’s on your bucket list? The answer could help patients, physicians discuss advanced care treatment
Popular as plot fodder for feel-good movies and as a conversation starter at cocktail parties, the "bucket list" is also a useful tool for doctors and patients when they're talking about care plans. Asking patients about their goals and aspirations helps ensure their medical care fits their life plans, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say.
PhychCentral:
Review ‘Bucket List’ with Doctor to Help Focus Care
For doctors, knowing their patients' bucket lists is a great way to provide personalized care and get them to adopt healthy behaviors, said VJ Periyakoil, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine, who said that she routinely asks her patients if they have a bucket list. “Telling a patient not to eat sugar ...
QUARTZ at WORK:
You shouldn’t wait until the end to make your bucket list, according to new research
Dr. VJ Periyakoil, an associate professor at Stanford's medical school and director of the Stanford Palliative Care Education and Training Program, started asking patients about their own bucket lists as a way to get to know them better. She soon realized that the information helped her come up with ...
HealthDay:
Make a Bucket List -- Then Share It With Your Doc
Do you have things you want to do before your time's up? If so, consider sharing that so-called "bucket list" with your doctors.
Those discussions could help your doctors provide health care that fits your life plans, researchers say. And for people with a chronic or even terminal illness, it could also help with advance planning.
A survey of more than 3,000 people across the United States found that 91 percent had made a bucket list.
MSN News:
VA struggles with Vietnam vets' end-of-life care
Dec 17, 2017 - “They're so distracted trying to cope with their physical symptoms that they might have flashbacks,” said VJ Periyakoil, a palliative care physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care Center and director of palliative care education at Stanford University. “War memories start coming back; they start having ...
CBS San Francisco:
Stanford Doctor’s Last Letter Project Helping Dying Patients Get Closure
Sep 19, 2016 - (CBS). KCBS_740 PALO ALTO (KCBS) — A Stanford doctor is helping her patients write a last letter to loved ones as a way of healing emotional pain and minimizing regret at the end of life in what's known as the Stanford Friends and Family Letter project. Dr VJ Periyakoil started the project as a way to ...
KALW | Local Public Radio San Francisco:
Having tough end-of-life conversations — before it's too late
I thought my family had all the pieces in place, until the crisis happened and that’s when I realized how woefully unprepared we were. My 91 year old father had fallen in the early morning hours and was unable to get up from the bathroom floor.
The New York Times:
Writing a ‘Last Letter’ When You’re Healthy
Over the last 15 years, as a geriatrics and palliative care doctor, I have had candid conversations with countless patients near the end of their lives. The most common emotion they express is regret: regret that they never took the time to mend broken friendships and relationships; regret that they never told their friends and family how much they care; regret that they are going to be remembered by their children as hypercritical mothers or exacting, authoritarian fathers.
REUTERS Health:
Doctors get less aggressive care before death
Doctors tend to get less aggressive care before death than the average person, a new study finds. The question of what kind of care doctors themselves would receive is often on patients' and families' minds, the researchers say.
CANMUA:
Doctors opt for less care on their own deathbeds: study
... Periyakoil, who was not involved with the new study, said her own research shows that about 99 percent of doctors report barriers in discussing end-of-life care with their patients.
Vietnam Breaking News:
Doctors get less aggressive care before death
... Doctors were more likely, however, to receive hospice care and to use less costly care before death, but those findings may be due to chance. “Doctors understand (that) modern medicine can both help and harm people, especially at the end of life, and they understand its limits,” said Weissman.
YOUR HEALTH® Radio:
Veterans and Palliative Care with Dr. VJ Periyakoil
This weekend on YOUR HEALTH® Radio Dr. Adam Goldstaein & Dr. Cristy Page are talking with Dr. VJ Periyakoil, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University about Veterans and Palliative Care.
New York Times Opinionator:
Pitfalls for Proxies
Of the many factors that affect the experience of dying, the one that patients and families often have the greatest control over is making decisions that are in the patient’s best interest. I recently participated in research on barriers to quality end-of-life care as part of a study released today in the Journal of Palliative Medicine.
The Washington Post:
The silver tsunami is actually silver-brown. How does end-of-life care differ for minorities?
Due to unprecedented advances in medicine, Americans are living longer — but we’re not necessarily living better. Currently, 45 percent of Americans have at least one chronic illness and 70 percent will eventually die from one. Heart disease, cancer or stroke in particular will claim 1 in 2 lives.
San Jose Mecury News:
Palliative care in California: Improving, but not everywhere
California's system for handling serious and end-of-life care is improving, but more services are needed to meet patient demand, according to two major reports released on Thursday. A growing number of the state's hospitals -- especially in the Bay Area -- are offering palliative care to comfort patients living with serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and dementia, protecting them from futile, often painful medical treatments, the reports say.
SCOPE by Stanford Medicine:
Stanford Letter Project, which helps users have end-of-life discussions, now available for mobile devices
For many of us, the topic of how we want to spend our final days rarely comes up in discussions with our family members or doctors. And a big reason why is that we think of reflecting on how we want to die as highly emotional and unpleasant.
New York Times Opinionator:
We Need a Role Reversal in the Conversation on Dying
In most doctor-patient conversations, the doctor leads the way. But when it comes to planning for the end of life, we need a role reversal. The patient — you — may have to take the lead in conducting end-of-life conversations.
CNN:
How doctors want to die is different than most people
Dr. Kendra Fleagle Gorlitsky recalls the anguish she used to feel performing CPR on elderly, terminally ill patients. "I felt like I was beating up people at the end of their life," she says.
Stanford Medicine News Center:
How would you like to die? A conversation with Stanford's VJ Periyakoil
How would you like to die? Asking patients that question is not easy for most doctors. In fact, most of us – doctors and patients alike – prefer to avoid the topic completely. VJ Periyakoil, MD, director of Stanford’s Palliative Care Education and Training, says this needs to change.
NPR:
Knowing How Doctors Die Can Change End-Of-Life Discussions
Dr. Kendra Fleagle Gorlitsky recalls the anguish she felt performing CPR on elderly, terminally ill patients. It looks nothing like what we see on TV. In real life, ribs often break and few survive the ordeal.
Health News from NPR:
Doctors Say They Would Shun Aggressive Treatment When Near Death
Everybody dies.
But when doctors' time is up, they are different from the rest of us. They "go gently" rather than opt for aggressive end-of-life treatments,
KQED News:
Ethnic Differences Thwart End-of-Life Conversations
Virtually all doctors have difficulty talking to their patients about death, and those conversations are even harder when the patient’s ethnicity is different from the doctor’s, according to a study published Wednesday in the online journal Plos One.
The Washington Post:
Ethnicity complicates patient-doctor discussion of death
Talking about death is never easy, even for medical professionals. But a new study has found that difficulty discussing end-of-life medical treatments is complicated further when there are ethnic differences that can create subtle barriers between the doctor and patient.
Medical Express:
Patient-doctor ethnic differences thwart end-of-life conversations
Most doctors balk at talking with seriously ill patients about what's important to them in their final days, especially if the patient's ethnicity is different than their own, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Pacific Standard:
Death and Dying, Lost in Translation
Language barriers top the list of challenges doctors face with end-of-life conversations with patients from different ethnic backgrounds.
Inside Stanford Medicine:
Patient-doctor ethnic differences thwart conversations on end-of-life care, study finds
Doctors struggle to start discussions with ailing patients about how they want to spend their last days, a survey finds. The upshot? Patients should bring up the topic themselves.
SCOPE by Stanford Medicine:
How would you like to die? Tell your doctor in a letter
Asking patients how they would like to die is not a question that comes easy to most doctors.
The California Report by KQED:
Ethnic Differences Thwart End-of-Life Conversations
Virtually all doctors have difficulty talking to their patients about death, and those conversations are even harder when the patient’s ethnicity is different from the doctor’s, according to a study published Wednesday in the online journal Plos One.
EurekAlert! by American Association for the Advancement of Science:
Patient-doctor ethnic differences thwart end-of-life conversations
Most doctors balk at talking with seriously ill patients about what's important to them in their final days, especially if the patient's ethnicity is different than their own, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Medical Daily:
Patients Must Begin End-Of-Life Care Conversations Because Doctors Often Fail To Communicate
Most doctors hesitate to begin a serious conversation with their deathly ill patients about what the final days will look like, say researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine. The new study, which surveyed medical residents during their final year of training, finds this to be especially true when a patient’s ethnicity is different than a doctor’s own.
Association of Health Care Journalists:
Why is it so hard to discuss end-of life-care? #ahcj15
A provocative examination of end-of-life care brought this question into sharp focus for journalists attending Health Journalism 2015. Paul Kleyman, who moderated a panel on the topic, noted that essential end-of-life elements first reported on 30 years ago – such as affordability and death with dignity – are still relevant and have intensified.
National Continuing Care Residents Association (NACCRA) March/April 2015:
How Doctors Die (It’s not like the rest of us)
Study reveals disparity between how doctors choose to die and how they treat dying patients. In a recent survey of more than 1,000 doctors, 88 percent said they’d choose a “no code” or do-not- resuscitate order for themselves if the risks and burdens of treatment outweighed the expected benefits
Aftering:
Death and Dying, Lost in Translation
Language barriers top the list of challenges doctors face with end-of-life conversations with patients from different ethnic backgrounds. It’s never easy for doctors to talk to their patients about death, but it’s especially hard when they don’t speak the same language. In fact, language differences top the list of barriers doctors encounter when discussing end-of-life issues with patients, according to a study published today in the journal PLoS One.
Fierce Practice Management:
Cultural differences create bigger end-of-life challenges
While patient-physician discussions about end-of-life (EOL) care are notoriously difficult, barriers to effective planning is that much harder for patients with diverse ethnicities, according to research from Stanford University School of Medicine published in PLOS ONE.
Neurology Update powered by 6 minutes:
Cultural differences thwart end-of-life conversations
Almost all doctors dealing with dying patients report difficulties with end-of-life conversations, but the problem is exacerbated when the patient is of a different...
New America Media:
Why Multiethnic Doctors Struggle With Patients’ End-of-Life Care
A provocative examination of end-of-life care brought this question into sharp focus for journalists attending the recent Health Journalism 2015 conference here. Paul Kleyman, who moderated a panel on the topic, noted that essential end-of-life elements first reported on 30 years ago – such as affordability and death with dignity – are still relevant and have intensified.