For this fourth and final episode in our limited series of Medical Matters shows for Fall 2015, we speak with Dr. Angelo Volandes of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He's also also the author of a popular new guidebook, which he tells us about. That book is "The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care." As Shannon Brownlee, the author of "Overtreated," has noted of this work: "Through seven stories of seven patients, Volandes movingly and evocatively tells the tale of how American healthcare does death wrong, often with tragic consequences, and how we can do it right. This is a book about how to live life as well as possible right up until the end, and it should be required reading for anyone who is mortal." And futher, from a critic writing for Booklist: "Worth the price of the book alone is Volandes' easy-to-follow guide for determining and making known one's end-of-life wishes."
Also on the program, Gary Schwitzer, the founder and editor of HealthNewsReview.org, joins us for a chat about recent trends and transgressions in medical journalism. And commentator Janet Pearson offers an essay about DNA editing.