Alexander Smith, MD, MS, MPH Associate Professor of Medicine, San
Francisco VA Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco
Division of Geriatrics
Recorded December 11, 2014
Making predictions is part of every domain of life, including health
care, and when the prediction of healthcare outcomes influences the
decisions that are made or the actions that are taken as a result of the
prediction, these predictions take on ethical dimensions. We will begin
with a brief historical overview, describing the waning of the
importance of prognosis in medicine over time. This will lead to a
description of the importance of prognosis in palliative care and
geriatrics. We address ethical issues raised by the uncertainty inherent
in prognosis, and issues in the communication of prognosis to patients.
We will discuss the presenters work in this area, including a website
for estimating prognosis for older adults (
www.eprognosis.org and
ePrognosis: Cancer Screening available for free in iTunes).
This lecture was part of the 2014-2015 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series, presented by the
Center for Ethics.
Originally recorded in Adobe Connect Pro.