Beeson Scholar Jason Karlawish Authors NY Times Op-Ed on Aging and Life Expectancy
A recent New York Times op-ed features Beeson Scholar Dr. Jason Karlawish's thoughts on aging in the 21st century, "Too Young Too Die, Too Old to Worry." Here he presents the question, "When should we set aside a life lived for the future and, instead, embrace the pleasures of the present?" Dr. Karlawish describes advances in the science of forecasting life expectancy. For example, physician researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and at Harvard, (including fellow Beeson Scholars Drs. Sei Lee and Mara Schonberg) have developed ePrognosis, a website that collates 19 risk calculators that an older adult can use to calculate her likelihood of dying in the next six months to 10 years. He argues that websites like these can be a convenient vehicle to disseminate information to patients, but that complex actuarial data — including its uncertainties and limitations — are best conveyed during a face-to-face, doctor-patient conversation.
A recent New York Times op-ed features Beeson Scholar Dr. Jason Karlawish's thoughts on aging in the 21st century, "Too Young Too Die, Too Old to Worry." Here he presents the question, "When should we set aside a life lived for the future and, instead, embrace the pleasures of the present?" Dr. Karlawish describes advances in the science of forecasting life expectancy. For example, physician researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and at Harvard, (including fellow Beeson Scholars Drs. Sei Lee and Mara Schonberg) have developed ePrognosis, a website that collates 19 risk calculators that an older adult can use to calculate her likelihood of dying in the next six months to 10 years. He argues that websites like these can be a convenient vehicle to disseminate information to patients, but that complex actuarial data — including its uncertainties and limitations — are best conveyed during a face-to-face, doctor-patient conversation.
Though we are "becoming a nation of planners living quantified lives," we also "desire not simply to pursue life, but happiness, and that medicine is important, but it’s not the only means to this happiness. A national investment in communities and services that improve the quality of our aging lives might help us to achieve this."
Read the full piece here.