title: Death, taxes and advance directives.
abstract: Suboptimal care at the end-of-life can be due to lack of access or knowledge of patient wishes. Ambiguity is often the result of non-standardized formats. Borrowing digital technology from other industries and using existing health information infrastructure can greatly improve the completion, storage, and distribution of advance directives. We believe several simple, low-cost adaptations to regional and federal programs can raise the standard of end-of-life care.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Public Health , Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Diameter Health , Newton, Massachusetts, United States.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: D'Amore
authors.affiliation: Houston Methodist Hospital, Surgery , Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics and the UT-Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality & Safety , Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Sittig
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Public Health , Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Ness
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016223:Advance Directives; D003643:Death; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D013660:Taxes
keywords: Health information exchange; advance directive; end of life