SynthesisJournal of general internal medicine2020
Use and Meaning of "Goals of Care" in the Healthcare Literature: a Systematic Review and Qualitative Discourse Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of general internal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Enhancing goals of care discussions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinician-directed behavioural nudges.Age and ageing · 2026Pooled it
- Instability in End-of-Life Goals and Preferences of Patients Who Are Seriously Ill: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Using nudges with electronic health records systems to improve advance care planning: a systematic review.BMC palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- One-Year Outcomes Following Emergency Laparotomy: A Systematic Review.World journal of surgery · 2022Pooled it
- Video Intervention and Goals-of-Care Documentation in Hospitalized Older Adults: The VIDEO-PCE Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- Assessment of Natural Language Processing of Electronic Health Records to Measure Goals-of-Care Discussions as a Clinical Trial Outcome.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- Efficacy of a Communication-Priming Intervention on Documented Goals-of-Care Discussions in Hospitalized Patients With Serious Illness: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Assessing the Implementation and Effectiveness of the Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Tool for Older Adults With Complex Care Needs: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Factors associated with dying in hospital awaiting palliative care admission: a retrospective cohort study.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Goals of Care Discussions in Medical Training: Integrating Palliative Care for Holistic, Patient-Centered Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Differences in Goals of Care and Advance Care Planning Note Templates.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2026Article
- A modular pipeline for natural language processing-screened human abstraction of a pragmatic trial outcome from electronic health records.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2026Article
- Assessment of a Zero-Shot Large Language Model in Measuring Documented Goals-of-Care Discussions.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2026Article
- Designing the Healthcare System for the Fulfilment of Patient Goals: A Patient-Centric Exploration in the Home Dialysis Context.The International journal of health planning and management · 2026Article
- Article
- Evaluation of a Novel Goals-of-Care Discussion Priming Tool (MyCare) in Inpatient General Internal Medicine Ward Settings: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- A Scoping Review on Goals of Care Discussions in Surgery: How Are We Doing and How Can We Do Better?World journal of surgery · 2025Article
- A modular pipeline for natural language processing-screened human abstraction of a pragmatic trial outcome from electronic health records.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Content and Comprehensiveness of Goals-of-Care Documentation in Pediatric Patients.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2025Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe specific phrase "goals of care" (GOC) is pervasive in the discourse about serious illness care. Yet, the meaning of this phrase is ambiguous. We sought to characterize the use and meaning of the phrase GOC within the healthcare literature to improve communication among patients, families, clinicians, and researchers.
methodsA systematic review of the English language healthcare literature indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Scopus was performed in October of 2018. We searched for all publications with the exact phrase "goals of care" within the title or abstract; no limitations on publication date or format were applied; conference abstracts were excluded. We used qualitative, discourse analysis to identify key themes and generate an operational definition and conceptual model of GOC.
resultsA total of 214 texts were included in the final analysis. Use of GOC increased over time with 87% of included texts published in the last decade (2009-2018). An operational definition emerged from consensus within the published literature: the overarching aims of medical care for a patient that are informed by patients' underlying values and priorities, established within the existing clinical context, and used to guide decisions about the use of or limitation(s) on specific medical interventions. Application of the GOC concept was described as important to the care of patients with serious illness, in order to (1) promote patient autonomy and patient-centered care, (2) avoid unwanted care and identify valued care, and (3) provide psychological and emotional support for patients and their families. DISCUSSION: The use of the phrase "goals of care" within the healthcare literature is increasingly common. We identified a consensus, operational definition that can facilitate communication about serious illness among patients, families, and clinicians and provide a framework for researchers developing interventions to improve goal-concordant care.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.