New York, Researchers at University of Vermont have used machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to better understand conversations about death, which could eventually help doctors improve their end-of-life communication. Some of the most important, and difficult, conversations in healthcare are the ones that happen amid serious and life-threatening illnesses. Discussions of the treatment options and prognoses in these settings are a delicate balance for doctors and nurses who are dealing with people at their most vulnerable point and may not fully understand what the future holds. "We want to understand this complex thing called a conversation. Our major goal is to scale up the measurement of conversations so we can re-engineer the healthcare system to communicate better," said Robert Gramling, director of the Vermont Conversation Lab in the study published in the journal Patient Education and Counselling.