Advancing Legal and Medical Collaboration in Advance Care Planning

Grant Summary

Advance care planning for the end of life is an essential component of person and family-centered care. However, legal and health care professionals are not well-aligned in advance care planning processes and this often results in legal documents that are not actionable in clinical settings. This project intends to bridge the chasm between lawyers and clinicians so that advance care planning will support patients’ goals of care being understood, documented, and honored in health care decision-making. The American Bar Association will convene, in collaboration with the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, experts and stakeholders and produce National Recommendations and Best Practice Guidelines with actionable tools for medical-legal collaboration in effective advance care planning.