Alzheimer Disease

Computer predicts wishes of incapacitated patients better than family or loved ones

Published in Law and Health Weekly, March 31st, 2007

When a person fails to complete an advance directive and becomes incapacitated by illness or injury, doctors typically ask the patient's loved one to predict what treatment the patient would have wanted. But a paper in PLoS Medicine reports that a computer-based decision tool can predict a patient's treatment wishes better than a loved one.

To use the decision tool, called a "population-based treatment indicator," the doctor first enters the incapacitated patient's circumstances and personal characteristics into a computer. Perhaps, for example, the patient has pneumonia and severe Alzheimer disease, and he is a 60 year old, well educated, Native American, male. The...

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Source: Law and Health Weekly (2007-03-31)

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