Ep. 413 Death in the E.R. and the Failures of Modern Medicine with Drew Remignanti MD

End-of-Life University

Learn about current issues in healthcare that are impacting the quality of care received at the end of life.

My guest Dr. Drew Remignanti is an emergency medicine physician who has lived with chronic illness since being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 19. He suffered a major stroke at the age of 38 that sidetracked his career for five years but inspired him to write the book The Healing Connection: A Partnership for Your Health, which explores how dollar-driven motives wield too much influence over our medical decisions, including at the end of life. To learn more about the book follow Dr. Remignanti on Facebook:

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This episode includes:

• What happens when people show up at the ER without an advance directive
• Why the default emergency care is “do everything”
• What is “slow medicine” and how are current forces in the healthcare system working against it
• Why patients and providers need to work together to make the changes we need
• When people know and trust their physician they are far more likely to create an advance care plan for their health and follow it
• Studies show it takes only 40 seconds of compassion in a medical encounter to make a significant difference
• The “commoditization” of healthcare and the problems it causes
• The US has an 88% rate of healthcare illiteracy, meaning people do not know how to acquire or apply information about their health

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Holding Space Consultant Training
• Blog: How Virtual Reality Transformed My Ordinary Reality
• Sign up for aNUma’s Clear Light Program here: https://anuma.com/trial
• Previous episode with Gregory Roufa and Lama Karma from aNUma: Episode389
• Get EOLU Podcast Merch here
• Conversations on Death with ChatGPT – Audiobook here; Print Book here
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