071 – Interview: How Estimating Life Expectancy Helps Older Adults Get Better Care

In This Episode:

Dr. K talks with Sei Lee, MD, an expert on prognosis and using estimated life expectancy to improve medical care for older adults. Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor in the UCSF Division of Geriatrics. They discuss:

• What the term “prognosis” means, especially when it comes to older adults
• Why a person’s likely life expectancy should be used to tailor medical care
• How the answers to simple questions can be used to predict mortality
• Why even a good life expectancy calculator can’t make exact predictions for a specific person
• Common forms of medical care that may not be worth doing, if life expectancy is limited
• Why it’s important to reconsider intensive diabetes treatment
• How the Eprognosis.org website can help people learn whether cancer screening is still likely to benefit them
• The challenges of discussing prognosis and life expectancy with older adults
• Examples of how we can better focus medical care on “what matters the most”

Related episodes: 

024 – Interview: Better Cancer Screening While Aging

039 – Interview: Creating Age-Friendly Health Systems

054 – How to Make Difficult Decisions Easier: Using Goals of Care & Weighing Benefits vs Burdens

Related Resources:

• Eprognosis.org
  • Cancer screening tool
  • Mortality prediction calculators
  • Communication videos and resources
• Dr. Sei Lee’s related research:
  • Development and Validation of a Prognostic Index for 4-Year Mortality in Older Adults
  • Prognostic Indices for Older Adults: A Systematic Review
• Recommended news columns:
  • The New Old Age (New York Times)
  • Navigating Aging (Kaiser Health News)