EthoMedical Leaves: Treatment choices when the patient is incapacitated

David Wendler and Annete Rid’s [2011]study on surrogates treatment decisions has shown that at least one third of the surrogates experienced a negative emotional burden as the result of making the choice. Rid, Wendler and others have proposed the use of a Patient Preference Predictor (PPP) -an actuarial model for prediction- that gathers particular information about the treatment preferences of a population sample and produces the treatment option that an individual patient would be most likely to prefer.

One question: What about asking patients about their own choices for most common scenarios and preparing files well in advance, when signing health insurance policies? The collected database would certainly improve the actuarial model of prediction for all those cases where there is not an opportunity to ask the patient.

References

Wendler, David and Rid, Annette. The Effect on Surrogates of Making Treatment Decisions for Others. [2011]. Ann Intern Med. 2011;154(5):336-346.