Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH, will be the plenary speaker at the 12th Northwest Patient Safety Conference on May 28, 2014.

Dr. Volandes will present on Improving quality in end-of-life care: using videos and system-level change to enhance care. When asked, most Americans prefer to die at home, surrounded by their loved ones, and outside of the institutional grip of the health care system. Yet, most Americans still die in a hospital or nursing home, often tethered to IVs and machines, and in pain. End-of-life care remains one of the most important areas to improve safety and quality; to make sure that health care delivered is concordant with patient preferences. Video decision aids may be one means to help solve this seeming intractable medical error.  Dr. Volandes is a faculty member in the General Medicine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.