SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A mortality tool developed by researchers at UCSF may improve the quality of life for those suffering from dementia, according to a new study.
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Dr. James Deardorff is a geriatrician and research fellow at UCSF and lead author of the study that led to development of the end of life tool.
"Our goal was to create a model that could give healthcare professionals an accurate estimate of someone's life expectancy or risk for mortality," he told KCBS Radio's "As Prescribed." "We chose to specifically focus on a population of older adults with dementia who were living in the community because there weren't any good tools for this population and the course of dementia is often highly variable."
The mortality prediction model is intended help doctors frame discussions with patients and their families relating to end-of-life care, at-home support and nursing homes. Using statistical factors such as age, gender, health status and whether or not the patients had difficulties performing daily activities, UCSF health experts were able to predict the patient's overall life expectancy.
"We've hosted this model on eprognosis.org, which is an online collection of some of these prognostic tools that commissions can use. Essentially what (doctors) can do is they can go onto this website and input certain characteristics of their patients into a calculator and they would provide risk estimates of mortality over one, two, five, ten years."
Doctors can then use the information they gather through the online tool to help with clinical management and future planning.
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