Doctors, terminally ill patients often understand prognoses very differently

Having emotionally charged conversations can be difficult for everybody, even experienced doctors who have to discuss prognoses with patients and their families.

According to the New York Times, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that complicated or potentially negative medical information doesn’t flow between physicians and patients as smoothly as it should. The chances of survival estimated for terminally ill patients was significantly different between doctors and patients’ families.

And when patients and their families aren’t fully informed, their ability to make rational decisions about medical care is impaired.

But how can care teams correct for that? Some families aren’t ready to hear that a loved one could be dying. Physicians are as susceptible as everybody else to misreading a social situation, leading to accidentally over- or under-sharing patient info with certain family members. Confirmation biases also could lead patients and family members to believe the “usual odds [don’t] apply” to them.  

Check out the Times’ story about the study and how certain physicians are working to be extra-clear when discussing illness and end-of-life care.