Doctors get less aggressive care before death

Doctors tend to get less aggressive care before death than the average person, a new study finds. The question of what kind of care doctors themselves would receive is often on patients' and families' minds, the researchers say. "Family members of critically or terminally ill patients sometimes seek reassurance from the physician that their loved ones are receiving the same care their physicians would receive," said lead author Joel Weissman, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Previous research teams have asked doctors what treatments or services they would choose at the end of their lives, but what care they actually received hasn't been clear, Weissman told Reuters Health.