The Value of Advanced Care Planning for Spokespersons of Patients

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[@fridaychalktalk-palliativecare]

We agree with you that the importance of Advanced Care Planning is about the quality of the conversation. Just having a document (checking the box) is often not all that useful for clinicians or surrogates... and may even be confusing. If you have preferences about your goals, your limits, your end of life then be sure to have those conversations with the people that will be your surrogate in the future. Will those conversations impact goal-concordant care? The research has not necessarily shown that aspect to be true so far, but this study and others show that there may be other benefits to ACP beyond the initial intended consequences.

[@martyb8772]

Michael and Bronson, we appreciate your paper and all the work you’ve done in advance care planning. Thank you for exploring the ways that advance care planning has value in areas that may have been different than what was initially intended when it was first studied decades ago.