RT Journal
A1 Matlock DD, Allen LA
T1 Defibrillators, deactivation, decisions, and dying : Comment on “patient preferences for deactivation of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators”
JF JAMA Internal Medicine
JO JAMA Internal Medicine
YR 2013
FD March 11
VO 173
IS 5
SP 379
OP 380
DO 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2130
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2130
AB 
In a medical culture where death is too often viewed as failure, clinicians and patients struggle to have high-quality discussions about deactivating an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The implications of this inaction are not trivial. In approximately half of hospices over the course of a year, patients dying of incurable disease will be shocked by their ICDs.1 Multiple societies have made recent calls for increased communication around ICD deactivation.2- 3 However, exactly what form those conversations should take has yet to be determined.