This chapter recounts a meaningful exchange during a medical internship at a cancer center, where a terminally ill patient challenges the necessity of strict dietary rules. The discussion emphasizes the delicate balance healthcare providers must strike between following health guidelines and honoring patients' desires for quality of life in their final days.
Physician Adam Cifu keeps a binder of every patient of his who has passed away. Every once in a while, he opens it and remembers the lives of his past patients. Morbid? Maybe a little. But it's just one of the ways Cifu tries to make his practice of medicine more mindful. In this conversation with EconTalk's Russ Roberts, Cifu explores the human side of medicine and the challenges of being a good doctor.