The Battle Of Being Mortal Is The

Better Is Possible. It Does Not Take Genius. It Takes Diligence. It Takes Moral Clarity. It Takes Ingenuity. And Above All, It Takes A Willingness To Try.

I Learned About A Lot Of Things In Medical School, But Mortality Wasn't One Of Them.

Having Great Components Is Not Enough, And Yet We've Been Obsessed In Medicine With Components. We Want The Best Drugs, The Best Technologies, The Best Specialists, But We Don't Think Too Much About How It All Comes Together.

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

As Economists Have Often Pointed Out, We Pay Doctors For Quantity, Not Quality. As They Point Out Less Often, We Also Pay Them As Individuals, Rather Than As Members Of A Team Working Together For Their Patients. Both Practices Have Made For Serious Problems.