Goals of Care: National Palliative Care Research Center

The goals of care framework asks decision-makers to prioritize goals of medical care – primarily survival, function, or comfort – before engaging in major decision-making about medical treatment. The research will test a decision support intervention for family caregivers who make health care decisions for persons with advanced dementia. Surrogate decision-makers for nursing home residents with advanced dementia will review an audiovisual Goals of Care Decision Aid and participate in a structured care planning meeting with the interdisciplinary team. Investigators will study the effect of this decision support on caregivers’ knowledge and expectations of treatments and outcomes. After 3 months, follow-up interviews will ask about effects on the quality of communication with health care providers, number of palliative care domains addressed, and family-health care provider concordance on goals of care.

Principal Investigator: Laura Hanson, M.D., M.P.H.

Funding National Palliative Care Research Center

Total Project Period: 7/1/10-12/31/11