Palliative and Therapeutic Harmonization (PATH) is an innovative, award-winning model, designed to improve the patient/family experience and resource utilization in frailty.
The PATH model enables healthcare teams to understand and respond to frailty, and empowers patients and families with information that helps them navigate the complexity of frailty, including the health crisis.
At its core PATH is a philosophy—a new way of thinking about the health of older adults that places frailty at the forefront of evidence-informed decision-making. Using a validated and structured methodology, PATH trains healthcare providers and teams to understand the “big picture” of each patient’s health story and empowers patients and families with skills for health crisis navigation and decision-making.
The end result is that geriatric teams function more effectively, and patients and families feel empowered to make decisions about surgery, medical interventions, dialysis, nursinghome placement, and end-of-life care that are appropriate for their frailty burden.
This approach has been translated into clinical programs that have been implemented in the community, tertiary care, and long-term care.