Video Advance Directives

Angelo Volandes has spearheaded a body of research (e.g. here and more to come in 2012-2013) persuasively demonstrating that compared with participants who only heard a verbal description, participants who viewed a goals-of-care video were more likely to prefer comfort care and avoid CPR, and were more certain of their end-of-life decision making. 




I was delighted to hear, this morning, that version 2.0 of Volandes' research will move from using videos to inform patient decision making to using videos to document that decision making.  Having a video of the patient describing her preferences will surly help ED physicians, family members, and others accept and honor the patient's choices.