Background: Modern medicine enables clinicians to save lives and prolong time to death, yet some treatments have little chance of conferring meaningful benefits for patients nearing the end-of-life. What clinicians perceive as driving futile treatment in the non-Western healthcare context is poorly understood.
Aim: This study aimed to explore clinicians' perceptions of the factors that influence futile treatment at the end of life within a tertiary hospital cardiac care setting.
Design: We conducted semi-structured interviews with cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and palliative care doctors from a large national cardiology center in Singapore. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed.
Results: A total of 32 clinicians were interviewed. We identified factors that contributed to the provision of potentially futile treatment in these theme areas: patient- and family-related, clinician-related, and institutional and societal factors. Family roles and cultural influences were most commonly cited by participants as affecting end-of-life decisions and altering the likelihood of futile treatment. Specialty-specific alignments within cardiology and availability of healthcare resources were also important factors underpinning futile treatment.
Conclusion: Family-related factors were a primary driver for futile treatment in a non-Western, multicultural setting. Future interventions should consider a targeted approach accounting for cultural and contextual factors to prevent and reduce futile treatment.
Keywords: cardiology; clinical decision-making; end of life care; futile treatment; medical futility; terminal care.