HANOVER, N.H. — Edie Gieg, 85, strides
ahead of people half her age and plays a fast-paced game of tennis. But
when it comes to health care, she is a champion of “slow medicine,” an
approach that encourages less aggressive — and less costly — care at
the end of life.

Grounded in research at the Dartmouth Medical School, slow medicine
encourages physicians to put on the brakes when considering care that
may have high risks and limited rewards for the elderly, and it
educates patients and families how to push back against emergency room
trips and hospitalizations designed for those with treatable illnesses,
not the inevitable erosion of advanced age.

Slow medicine, which shares with hospice care the goal of comfort rather than cure, is increasingly available in nursing homes,
but for those living at home or in assisted living, a medical scare
usually prompts a call to 911, with little opportunity to choose
otherwise.

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