Enhancing communication for end-of-life care: an electronic advance directive process

An advance directive, a description of one's future preferences for medical treatment, must be easily available to care providers to ensure that one's treatment preferences are honored. The transition of our health care system to an electronic medical record complicated the availability of a patient's written advance directive. This paper describes the development of an electronic advance directive to facilitate access to a patient's treatment wishes at any site in our health care system. The successes and challenges encountered in the development process are discussed.