June 17th, 2022
Podcast 292: Informed consent and apnea testing for death — or — What is death, anyway?
Apnea testing is part of the protocol used to determine whether a patient is dead according to neurologic criteria. The question is, do clinicians need to obtain consent to proceed? In a fascinating 15-minute chat, two intensivists, Drs. Patricia Kritek and Robert Truog, discuss that question and another, larger one: what is death, anyway? Their back-and-forth […]
December 12th, 2019
Podcast 246: Where we die now
For the first time in almost a century, Americans are dying at home more often than dying in hospitals. This seems to mark a cultural change that will affect both how and where clinical medicine is practiced. Dr. Haider Warraich’s letter to the editor of the NEJM presents the numbers, and he’s agreed to talk about their implications. […]
August 1st, 2013
Podcast 164: Talking about death
Running time: 11 minutes Last month John You and his colleagues published a guide to discussing advance care planning with patients at high risk of dying in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. It’s full of practical advice, and I thought it would be interesting to get a sense of You’s approach to this difficult issue that all […]
October 18th, 2012
Podcast 158: Physician-assisted dying — a conversation with Dr. Marcia Angell about the Massachusetts ‘Death with Dignity’ ballot question
Our conversation explores the question that Dr. Marcia Angell poses in a recent essay in the New York Review of Books: May doctors help you to die? Angell’s is the first name to appear as the sponsor of a November 6 ballot initiative here in Massachusetts, which is modeled on the Oregon law already in place. I’d […]
March 30th, 2009
Podcast 36: Michael K. Kearney is our guest. He talks about the self-care of clinicians engaged in end-of-life care.
We’ve got an interview with the first author of JAMA‘s final installment in its series on end-of-life care. The last paper focuses on the (necessary) self-care of clinicians who care for the dying. It’s an interesting discussion. Please call 1-617-440-4374 if you have any comments. I’ll toss them into the mix. This week’s links: Intensive […]