I'm working on my final report for my dissemination and implementation class: it's on end-of-life care and physician-patient (and/or physician-patient's family) communication thereof. It is probably one of my favorite projects, but it's also one of the hardest things I have ever had to research. There's so much literature about how poorly physicians are fulfilling their roles communicating with patients about end of life care, but not one agreed-upon guideline about what the ideal level of communication should be.
@medskep, who I follow on Twitter and who occasionally engages me in conversation about healthcare journalism and medicine, tweeted a few NYTimes links for me. They are also really hard for me to read sometimes: it's difficult to separate my personal feelings and the conversations I have had with my parents from the things I am reading, but then again, I don't think I'd want to compartmentalize that way.
On a less personal note, here's a summary from Dartmouth Atlas about Preference-sensitive care, which "comprises treatments that involve significant tradeoffs affecting the patient's quality and/or length of life."
