Advance-care planning, or ACP, is crucial for residents of long-term care facilities and communities, and digital technology now is a crucial element for ACP, a new report shows.
ACP is defined by the study as “the process by which individuals learn, decide and share their quality of life priorities, health goals and future medical treatment preferences.”
Senior living and care providers are looking into ways to foster more discussions about ACP with residents, as the actual number of individuals who have a plan, or have talked about one, remains low, the McKnight’s Clinical Daily recently reported.
This fact is despite evidence that ACP can help lower costs and, more importantly, lead to more comfort-based end-of-life care for diseases such as cancer.
Using digital tools to help generate an advance-care plan, however, “reduces barriers” to fostering a discussion and makes it easier for family members and healthcare providers to access such plans, the new analysis shows.
When study participants were given access to digital tools via Koda Health’s platforms, a majority of users took some steps toward creating an ACP, and just more than 52% completed one, the study found.
This result is compared with a 7% to 17% rate of ACP among older adults generally, study authors pointed out.
“This work indicates that digital tools like Koda Health’s platform might be effective at increasing access to ACP to populations in an equitable manner,” the study authors wrote. “Given the challenges of administering ACP in traditional healthcare settings, healthcare systems should consider the use of technology and new tools to effectively engage their patients in ACP to improve quality of care.”
Koda Health also suggested that the study bolstered the efficacy of their digital tools or other similar cloud-based platforms.
“Evidence-based, online resources can easily be introduced in the clinic, and doctors can trust that patients can make informed decisions,” study co-author R. Lynae Roberts, PhD, and a research scientist with Koda Health, said in a statement last week. “The cloud-based platform enables individuals to create detailed advance care plans.”
