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End of Life Online Curriculum

 

Prognostication

Doc, How Long Do I Have to Live?

In responding to this question, physicians perform two distinct and critically important tasks:

  1. they formulate a prognosis about the patient and
  2. they communicate a prognosis to the patient.

Prior research shows that each of these tasks is challenging to physicians and may result in patients having unrealistically optimistic expectations about their survival.

Please click on image below to see a video clip of the interaction

Patient Tom Aquino & Sister

 

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©End of Life Curriculum Project, a joint project of the US Veterans Administration and SUMMIT, Stanford University Medical School.
Funded by a grant to the Veterans Administration Nationwide Palliative Care Network by the National Library of Medicine. VJ Periyakoil, MD, Director.