With the advances in medical care over past decades, end-of-life (EOL) decision-making has become an integral part of quality health care, so that patients do not receive unwanted, invasive treatments. Many structured communication tools, such as decision aids and educational interventions, have been developed to help patients and clinicians with EOL decision-making. However, it is unclear whether such tools improve EOL communication and decision-making processes or increase the likelihood that patients will receive the kind of care they want at the end of life. Listen to Dr. John You, Dr. Simon Oczkowski and Dr. Han-Oh Chung of McMaster University as they explained the findings of their systematic review of existing communication tools for EOL decision-making.
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John You, MD, FRCPC is a hospital-based general internist who is a staff physician with Hamilton Health Sciences and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University. He received his BSc from McMaster University, and his MD and an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the CLARITY (Clinical Advances Through Research and Information Translation) research group at McMaster and an executive member of CARENET (Canadian Researchers at the End-of-Life Network), an interdisciplinary network of health care professionals from across Canada who collaborate to improve palliative and end-of-life care. His primary clinical and scholarly interests are in improving the quality of end of life communication, decision-making, and care for seriously ill elderly patients and their families.
Simon Oczkowski, MD, MHSc, FRCPC is a clinical scholar in the division of critical care, McMaster University, trainee member of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group and a member of the Academy of Critical Care. He was awarded the 2014 KJR Wightman Award for Scholarship in Ethics from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the 2015 Canadian Critical Care Trials Group Research Fellowship Award. His interests include clinical ethics, end-of-life care in hospitalized patients, and strategies to improve patient and family care in intensive care.
Han-Oh Chung MD, MSc HS ed, FRCPC is a critical care physician at Hamilton General Hospital. He received his BSc and MD degrees from the University of Toronto. He completed clinical training and received his MSc in Health Science education from McMaster University.