Gretchen Schwarze on Using Scenario Planning to Facilitate Informed Decision Making

On this GeriPal podcast we discuss the value of "scenario planning" in informed decision making with Gretchen Schwarze, Associate Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Schwarze is a board-certified vascular surgeon and medical ethicist who recently wrote an article on this subject in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Scenario planning comes from the economics literature, but Dr. Schwarze advocates for its use in medicine, giving healthcare providers the tools to say "I cannot predict the future, but if all goes well, this is what is likely to follow, and if things go poorly, this is what we can expect." The aim is not to develop the "correct" scenario, but to describe a range of stories illustrating how the future might unfold.