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Post B, Badea C, Faisal A, Brett SJ. Breaking bad news in the era of artificial intelligence and algorithmic medicine: an exploration of disclosure and its ethical justification using the hedonic calculus. AI AND ETHICS 2022; 3:1-14. [PMID: 36338525 PMCID: PMC9628590 DOI: 10.1007/s43681-022-00230-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
An appropriate ethical framework around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare has become a key desirable with the increasingly widespread deployment of this technology. Advances in AI hold the promise of improving the precision of outcome prediction at the level of the individual. However, the addition of these technologies to patient-clinician interactions, as with any complex human interaction, has potential pitfalls. While physicians have always had to carefully consider the ethical background and implications of their actions, detailed deliberations around fast-moving technological progress may not have kept up. We use a common but key challenge in healthcare interactions, the disclosure of bad news (likely imminent death), to illustrate how the philosophical framework of the 'Felicific Calculus' developed in the eighteenth century by Jeremy Bentham, may have a timely quasi-quantitative application in the age of AI. We show how this ethical algorithm can be used to assess, across seven mutually exclusive and exhaustive domains, whether an AI-supported action can be morally justified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Post
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK
- UKRI Centre in AI for Healthcare, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Cosmin Badea
- Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Aldo Faisal
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK
- UKRI Centre in AI for Healthcare, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Institute of Artificial and Human Intelligence, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Stephen J. Brett
- UKRI Centre in AI for Healthcare, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK
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Ibáñez del Prado C. Eutanasia y Psicología. Algunas claves para la intervención en Procesos Adelantados de Muerte. PSICOONCOLOGIA 2022. [DOI: 10.5209/psic.84044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Los países que han optado por regular los Procesos Adelantados de Muerte (PAM) van en aumento en los últimos años. Este tipo de legislaciones implican directamente a los equipos sanitarios.Los psicólogos incluidos en estos equipos están en contacto con estos procesos, por lo que se torna imprescindible dilucidar, mediante la escasa literatura existente, si los PAM presentan variables diferenciales con otros procesos de muerte, que sean necesarias tener en cuenta durante la asistencia psicológica. Esta recopilación de literatura pretende plantear las diferencias que en la actualidad están contrastadas y plantear qué opciones de intervención psicológica están a nuestra disposición para realizar el acompañamiento a estas personas, sus cuidadores y los equipos sanitarios que los asisten.
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Joad ASK, Hota A, Agarwal P, Patel K, Patel K, Puri J, Shin S. “I want to live, but …” the desire to live and its physical, psychological, spiritual, and social factors among advanced cancer patients: evidence from the APPROACH study in India. BMC Palliat Care 2022; 21:153. [PMID: 36045352 PMCID: PMC9429624 DOI: 10.1186/s12904-022-01041-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
The limited access to palliative care resources along with the social stigma around cancer largely explains the poor quality of life (QoL) of Indian advanced cancer patients. As advanced cancer patients with poor QoL often harbour a desire for hastened death (DHD), it is imperative to understand factors affecting DHD, or the desire to live (DTL) among advanced cancer patients in India. We aim to examine the relationship between DTL and physical, psychological, spiritual, and social factors measuring patients’ QoL alongside their awareness of their late cancer stage.
Methods
We surveyed 200 patients from a tertiary cancer hospital in India to collect their DTL, awareness of cancer stage, demographic characteristics, and standardized measures for patients’ QoL. We used a linear probability regression model to quantify the association between these factors and patients’ DTL among the final sample of 192 patients with no missing information for the variables of interest.
Results
Among the various domains affecting cancer patients’ QoL, we found that the pain severity score (ranging from 0 to 10) and psychological distress score (ranging from 0 to 42) are negatively associated with the DTL. One point increase in each score reduced the DTL by 2.2% (p < 0.05) and 0.7% (p < 0.05), respectively. Our results also showed that patients whose perceived socio-economic status (SES) is poor have a 16% (p < 0.05) lower probability of DTL, compared to those with higher SES (lower middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy). Controlling for caste, religion, gender, age, marital status and years of education, we found psychological distress is statistically higher among patients belonging to this bottom SES.
Conclusions
We found that pain severity, psychological distress and perceived low SES are negatively associated with the desire to live in advanced cancer patients. Future research should focus on developing interventions to improve physical pain and psychological distress, particularly for patients who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
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Increasing our understanding of nonphysical suffering within palliative care: A scoping review. Palliat Support Care 2021; 20:417-432. [DOI: 10.1017/s1478951521001127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Objective
Nonphysical suffering is emotional, psychological, existential, spiritual, and/or social in nature. While palliative care is a discipline dedicated to the prevention and relief of suffering — both physical and nonphysical — little is known about existing research specific to nonphysical suffering within the context of palliative care. This scoping review helps to fill this gap.
Method
Three hundred and twenty-eight unique records were identified through a systematic search of three databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO). The following keywords were used: (suffering) AND (palliative OR “end of life” OR “end-of-life” OR hospice OR dying OR terminal* ill*). Thirty studies published between 1998 and 2019 met the inclusion criteria.
Results
Losses, worries, and fears comprise patients’ primary sources of nonphysical suffering. Patients face numerous barriers in expressing their nonphysical suffering to healthcare providers. The idea that patients can choose how they perceive their circumstances, thereby minimizing their nonphysical suffering, is pervasive in the research. The nature of nonphysical suffering experienced by family caregivers and palliative care clinicians is revealed in the review. The unique and sensitive interplay between nonphysical suffering and both palliative sedation and requests for hastened death is also evident. Overall, seven themes can be identified: (i) patients’ experiences of nonphysical suffering; (ii) patient coping mechanisms; (iii) efforts to measure nonphysical suffering; (iv) palliative sedation; (v) requests for hastened death; (vi) family suffering; and (vii) clinician suffering.
Significance of results
This is the first scoping review to map palliative care's research specific to suffering that is social, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and/or existential in nature. Its findings expand our understanding of the nature of nonphysical suffering experienced by patients, families, and palliative care clinicians. The review's findings have significant implications for front-line practice and future research.
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Adorno G. Between Two Worlds: Liminality and Late-Stage Cancer-Directed Therapy. OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING 2015; 71:99-125. [PMID: 26625508 DOI: 10.1177/0030222815570589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Disease-directed therapy near death is a growing trend among persons living with late-stage cancer. As a sociocultural phenomenon, cancer-directed therapy (e.g., chemotherapy) when given for very advanced disease is a process that offers questionable benefits and portends further suffering, but also suggests potential for growth and transcendence. Theories and concepts drawn from cultural anthropology, sociology, and existentialism illustrate how contextual factors contribute to the creation of a "liminal space"; the latter part of the cancer trajectory where living and dying can overlap. When applied to clinical practice, this theoretical framework gives the patient, family, and health care provider a way of "unmasking" a period of transition during terminal illness when aggressive disease-directed care continues to be provided. The liminal space may function as an existential plane; a gateway or threshold with inherent potential for psychospiritual development during the final stage of life.
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Experiences of truth disclosure in terminally ill cancer patients in palliative home care. Palliat Support Care 2015; 9:173-80. [PMID: 24468485 DOI: 10.1017/s1478951511000046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and preferences of terminally ill cancer patients regarding truth telling in the communication of poor prognoses. METHOD We recorded and transcribed interviews with 45 patients who knew their cancer was terminal, and analyzed their responses hermeneutically. RESULTS Patients identified three different modes of truth: (1) the absolute objective truth that they are dying; (2) the partial truth about their condition including some facts but not all of the details; and (3) the desired truth, originating in the patient's own beliefs about a healthy or better life. Coping strategies were related to patients' preferred mode of truth: (1) facing the truth in order to take action; (2) facing some parts of the truth in order to maintain hope; and (3) hovering between facing and avoiding the truth. In their struggle for existential survival, patients used different coping strategies, changing from one to another depending upon the circumstances. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS Varying use of different coping strategies impacts on patient preferences concerning communication about bad news with their doctors. Truth-telling entails more than merely providing information related to the forthcoming death. It also concerns how physicians or other healthcare staff can support the patient's existential survival by fine-tuning the communication of "truth" according to the individuals' preferences.
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Brereton L, Gardiner C, Gott M, Ingleton C, Barnes S, Carroll C. The hospital environment for end of life care of older adults and their families: an integrative review. J Adv Nurs 2011; 68:981-93. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05900.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Krikorian A, Limonero JT, Maté J. Suffering and distress at the end-of-life. Psychooncology 2011; 21:799-808. [DOI: 10.1002/pon.2087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2010] [Revised: 09/09/2011] [Accepted: 09/20/2011] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Joaquín T. Limonero
- Research Group on Stress and Health, Faculty of Psychology; Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; Barcelona; Spain
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Nilmanat K, Chailungka P, Phungrassami T, Promnoi C, Tulathamkit K, Noo-urai P, Phattaranavig S. Living with suffering as voiced by Thai patients with terminal advanced cancer. Int J Palliat Nurs 2010; 16:393-9. [DOI: 10.12968/ijpn.2010.16.8.393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kittikorn Nilmanat
- Assistant Professor, Medical Nursing Department, Prince of Songkla University
| | - Pachariya Chailungka
- Assistant Professor and appointed Dean, Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University
| | - Temsak Phungrassami
- Associate Professor, Radiotherapy Department, Songklanagarind Hospital, Prince of Songkla University
| | - Chantra Promnoi
- Senior Lecturer, Surgical Nursing Department, Prince of Songkla University
| | - Kandawasri Tulathamkit
- Senior Nurses, Radiotherapy Department, Songklanagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
| | - Prachuap Noo-urai
- Senior Nurses, Radiotherapy Department, Songklanagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
| | - Sasiwimon Phattaranavig
- Senior Nurses, Radiotherapy Department, Songklanagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
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Dussel V, Joffe S, Hilden JM, Watterson-Schaeffer J, Weeks JC, Wolfe J. Considerations about hastening death among parents of children who die of cancer. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010; 164:231-7. [PMID: 20194255 DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To estimate the frequency of hastening death discussions, describe current parental endorsement of hastening death and intensive symptom management, and explore whether children's pain influences these views in a sample of parents whose child died of cancer. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Two tertiary-care US pediatric institutions. PARTICIPANTS A total of 141 parents of children who died of cancer (response rate, 64%). OUTCOME MEASURES Proportion of parents who (1) considered or (2) discussed hastening death during the child's end of life and who endorsed (3) hastening death or (4) intensive symptom management in vignettes portraying children with end-stage cancer. RESULTS A total of 19 of 141 (13%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8%-19%) parents considered requesting hastened death for their child and 9% (95% CI, 4%-14%) discussed hastening death; consideration of hastening death tended to increase with an increase in the child's suffering from pain. In retrospect, 34% (95% CI, 26%-42%) of parents reported that they would have considered hastening their child's death had the child been in uncontrollable pain, while 15% or less would consider hastening death for nonphysical suffering. In response to vignettes, 50% (95% CI, 42%-58%) of parents endorsed hastening death while 94% (95% CI, 90%-98%) endorsed intensive pain management. Parents were more likely to endorse hastening death if the vignette involved a child in pain compared with coma (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1-1.8). CONCLUSIONS More than 10% of parents considered hastening their child's death; this was more likely if the child was in pain. Attention to pain and suffering and education about intensive symptom management may mitigate consideration of hastening death among parents of children with cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Dussel
- Center for Outcomes and Policy Research and Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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Rizzo VM, Engelhardt J, Tobin D, Penna RD, Feigenbaum P, Sisselman A, Nicholson JS, Niemeyer B, Albert E, Lombardo F. Use of the Stages of Change Transtheoretical Model in End-of-Life Planning Conversations. J Palliat Med 2010; 13:267-71. [DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2009.0281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Daniel Tobin
- Center for Advanced Illness Coordinated Care, Albany, New York
| | - Richard Della Penna
- Mission Road Administrative Offices Campus, Kaiser Permanente Aging Network, Kaiser Permanente Health Care System, San Diego, California
| | | | - Amanda Sisselman
- School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York
| | | | | | - Elise Albert
- Kaiser Permanente Health Care System, Portland, Oregon
| | - Fred Lombardo
- Mission Road Administrative Offices Campus, Kaiser Permanente Aging Network, Kaiser Permanente Health Care System, San Diego, California
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Nelson ML, Schrader SL, Eidsness LM. “South Dakota's Dying to Know”: Personal Experiences with End-of-Life Care. J Palliat Med 2009; 12:905-13. [DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2009.0062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Margot L. Nelson
- Department of Nursing, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
| | - Susan L. Schrader
- Department of Sociology, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
| | - LuAnn M. Eidsness
- Department of Internal Medicine, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
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Abstract
Outpatient palliative care can provide significant benefits to seriously ill patients, but several barriers to appropriate referrals remain. No study has examined the physician factors associated with referral to outpatient palliative care. To determine physician factors, with a focus on physician beliefs, associated with referral to palliative care. Cross-sectional study of 170 primary care physicians at Kaiser Permanente (KP), a large non-profit Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), using a self-administered questionnaire. Of the 145 respondents, 100 (70%) reported referring any patients to the palliative care program in the prior year, with a median of 3 referrals (interquartile range 2, 6). Factors associated with referral included working at KP between 10 and 20 years as compared to <10 years [Odds ratio [OR] 6.29 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.38, 28.6)] and having personal experience with palliative care [OR 2.13 (95% CI 0.95, 4.976)]. None of the beliefs scales was associated with referral. Physician characteristics other than their beliefs about palliative care played a significant role in determining referral. Palliative care programs should aim to increase their visibility in the outpatient setting to increase referrals by primary care physicians. Tools that help physicians identify seriously ill patients who could benefit from palliative care may also serve to increase appropriate referrals.
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Affiliation(s)
- S C Ahluwalia
- Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.
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The desire for hastened death in individuals with advanced cancer: A longitudinal qualitative study. Soc Sci Med 2009; 69:165-71. [DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.04.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2008] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Schroepfer TA, Noh H, Kavanaugh M. The Myriad Strategies for Seeking Control in the Dying Process. THE GERONTOLOGIST 2009; 49:755-66. [DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnp060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Sittisombut S, Inthong S. Surrogate decision-maker for end-of-life care in terminally ill patients at Chiang Mai University Hospital, Thailand. Int J Nurs Pract 2009; 15:119-25. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-172x.2009.01730.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Role Model. J Palliat Med 2007. [DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2006.9999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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