ArticlePalliative medicine2022
General practitioners' evaluations of optimal timing to initiate advance care planning for patients with cancer, organ failure, or multimorbidity: A health records survey study.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of online advance care planning (ACP) decision aid programmes on adults with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Parental experiences in pediatric advance care planning for children with life-limiting illnesses: a qualitative meta-synthesis.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Using nudges with electronic health records systems to improve advance care planning: a systematic review.BMC palliative care · 2025Pooled it
- Charting the future: A multi-setting medical chart study of advance care planning in Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinsonism.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
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- Perceived acceptability of a prototype toolkit to support patients and informal caregivers to express their perspectives in palliative care conversations.PEC innovation · 2025Article
- Advanced Care Planning Prior to Oncologic Surgery: An Assessment of Utilization and Implications.Annals of surgical oncology · 2024Article
- Semiotics of ICU Physicians' Views on End-of-life Care and Quality of Dying in a Critical Care Setting: A Qualitative Study.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2024Article
- Summary of evidence to facilitate the implementation of advance care planning among advanced cancer patients.Zhong nan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Central South University. Medical sciences · 2024Article
- When should Home-visit nurses initiate end-of-life discussions for patients with Organ failure and family caregivers? A qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Actual timing versus GPs' perceptions of optimal timing of advance care planning: a mixed-methods health record-based study.BMC primary care · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAppropriate timing to initiate advance care planning is difficult, especially for individuals with non-malignant disease in community settings.
aimTo identify the optimal moment for, and reasons to initiate advance care planning in different illness trajectories. DESIGN AND
methodsA health records survey study; health records were presented to 83 GPs with request to indicate and substantiate what they considered optimal advance care planning timing within the 2 years before death. We used quantitative and qualitative analyses. SETTING AND PATIENTS: We selected and anonymized 90 health records of patients who died with cancer, organ failure or multimorbidity, from a regional primary care registration database in the Netherlands.
resultsThe median optimal advance care planning timing according to the GPs was 228 days before death (interquartile range 392). This moment was closer to death for cancer (87.5 days before death, IQR 302) than for organ failure (266 days before death, IQR 401) and multimorbidity (290 days before death, IQR 389) (
conclusionThe optimal advance care planning timing and reasons to initiate advance care planning indicated by GPs differ between patients with cancer and other illnesses, and they also differ between GPs. This suggests that "the" optimal timing for ACP should be seen as a "window of opportunity" for the different disease trajectories.
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