Medical decision-making

OBJECTIVE: Choosing between competing options (shunt or endoscopic third ventriculostomy) for the management of hydrocephalus requires patients and caregivers to make a subjective judgment about the relative importance of risks and benefits associated with each treatment. In the context of this particular decision, little is known about what treatment-related factors are important and how they are prioritized in order to arrive at a treatment preference.

Background: The Western individualistic understanding of autonomy for advance care planning is considered not to reflect the Asian family-centered approach in medical decision-making. The study aim is to compare preferences on timing for advance care planning initiatives and life-sustaining treatment withdrawal between terminally-ill cancer patients and their family caregivers in Taiwan.

Background: Critical illness increases the risk for poor mental health outcomes among both patients and their informal caregivers, especially their surrogate decision-makers. Surrogates who must make life-and-death medical decisions on behalf of incapacitated patients may experience additional distress.