Individualizing Prognosis

BACKGROUND

Patients and family members use various sources of information to come up with their own prognostic estimates, with only a small minority relying solely on a physician’s estimate. Therefore, it would be important for physicians to describe the various factors that may be influencing their prognostic estimates.

STEP AND EXAMPLE

Notice how the clinician in this example does the following step:

  1. Provide context behind their prognostic estimate by including factors that led to their prognostic estimates.

Take a minute to think about what worked well in this example and what can be done differently.

PRACTICE PHRASES REFERENCES
  1. Back AL, Arnold RM. Discussing prognosis: “How much do you want to know?” Talking to patients who are prepared for explicit information. J Clin Oncol. 2006 Sep 1;24(25):4209-13.
  2. Hagerty RG, Butow PN, Ellis PM, Dimitry S, Tattersall MHN. Communicating prognosis in cancer care: A systematic review of the literature. Ann Oncol. 2005 Jul;16(7):1005-53.

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