Life is now. Understanding and integrating relevant patient context into serious illness care

Care for serious illness often prioritises medical diagnoses and physical symptoms over personal life. This thesis reveals that specialists appreciate patient context but frequently miss relevant signals, resulting in treatments that succeed clinically yet disrupt everyday life. For patients, living with severe conditions means striving to preserve identity, daily rhythms, meaningful roles, and belonging. Workplace coaching and training improved clinicians' ability to record and exchange contextual information without increasing hospital costs. Because organisational barriers remain significant, delivering care that suits patients' needs demands systemic changes across records, teams, and healthcare organisations.