Doctors more likely to end up in ICU, and die there
Findings reveal doctors' views of end-of-life care are more 'nuanced' than previously thought
As death nears, doctors are more likely to use intensive end-of-life medical care than non-physicians, a Canadian study shows.
A common perception in the healthcare community is that doctors opt for less aggressive end-of-life care on the basis of their own experience and knowledge of the potential downsides of technology-laden institutional care, the authors say.
Whether this is actually the case is not clear.
Dr Robert Fowler, from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, assessed the intensity of treatment received by 2507 physicians and 7513 similar non-physicians who died in Ontario between 2004 and 2014.
