Advancing Discussions Using a Video-Based Support Tool About End-of-Life Care (ADVISE): Protocol for a Single-Center...

More than 950,000 adults over 65 years of age are hospitalized each year after injury. Recommended care for this vulnerable group includes discussion of their goals for life-sustaining care ("code status") upon admission, but most older patients do not participate in adequate code status discussions. Randomized trials have demonstrated that video-based interventions are associated with better patient knowledge and improved alignment of patient preferences for life-sustaining treatment; however, there are limited data on the effectiveness of these interventions in acutely injured patients.

This trial will evaluate the effectiveness and implementation considerations of a video conversation aid to enhance communication among trauma care providers, patients, and surrogate decision-makers regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and code status decisions.

This is a single-center randomized controlled trial evaluating the use of a video conversation aid to facilitate discussions of code status. The video intervention will be compared to usual care in the largest feasible pilot randomized controlled trial with the goal of estimating its benefit for patient-centered outcomes. All trauma patients aged 65 years and older admitted following injury are eligible. Incarcerated people, patients with existing do-not-resuscitate or do-not-intubate orders, patients admitted while in hospice care, and patients not expected to survive over 24 to 48 hours will be excluded. The primary outcome is transitions in code status. Secondary outcomes will include perceived success of CPR, video acceptability and effectiveness, knowledge of life-sustaining care outcomes and complications following CPR, participant desire for more information regarding life-sustaining care, hospital-free days, intensive care unit-free days, ventilator-free days, discharge disposition, decisional conflict score, and rate of interventional procedures (eg, tracheostomy, feeding tube placement, and dialysis initiation).

The ADVISE (Advancing Discussions Using a Video-Based Support Tool About End-of-Life Care) trial was funded in February 2025 via the Learning Healthcare System grant from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Enrollment began on March 17, 2025, and it is estimated to conclude on May 1, 2026.

The ADVISE trial builds on previous research on older trauma patients and advanced care planning using a video intervention to enhance code status discussions. We anticipate that our video aid tool will enhance patients' and surrogate decision-makers' knowledge of advanced care discussions.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06804226; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06804226.

DERR1-10.2196/87690.