ICU docs less likely to discuss end-of-life issues with blacks

Intensive care unit doctors are less comfortable discussing prognoses and end-of-life issues and do it less frequently with black patients than with white patients, according to U.S. researchers who analyzed interviews with ICU physicians at five major medical centers. The interviews revealed that the doctors discussed prognoses with 58% of their white patients and 41% of their black patients, and the ICU doctors were less than half as likely to report feeling comfortable during these conversations with their black patients.