End-of-Life Decisions

No decisions in health care are as complex, and few are as important, as the end-of-life decisions made by patients, their family members, and their clinicians. It’s crucial to understand and improve upon the ways in which end-of-life decisions are made. Our researchers believe that end-of-life decisions often are influenced by the ways in which choices are presented and the environments in which decisions are made.

Rather than passively accepting these influences on choice, we use approaches from psychology, economics, epidemiology, and sociology to design scalable interventions to increase the probabilities that end-of-life choices match the goals of patients, family members, providers, and society. If you’re interested in end-of-life decisions and palliative care, please also check out our sister center, the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center led by Dr. Scott Halpern.