Video-Enhanced Advance Care Planning: Joshua Lakin and Kei Ouchi

Can simple, evidence-based video decision aids—paired with structured clinician training—improve Advance Care Planning (ACP) documentation and goal-concordant care? That's the question we pose in this week's podcast with Dr. Joshua Lakin and Dr. Kei Ouchi. We break down the methodologies behind two major clinical trials in which they were involved that implemented this video-enhanced approach.

The first study, published in JGIM, was a multicenter, parallel randomized trial of 598 seriously ill older adults in emergency departments (EDs). It tested whether watching a 5-minute video and having a short, 10-minute structured clinical conversation during acute ED visits could establish longitudinal care preferences. The researchers found that this intervention not only increased ACP documentation at 3 months (45.6% vs. 31.3%), but also significantly increased goal-concordant care in a subset of study participants who died in the hospital.

The second study, published in JAMA Network Open, was a multicenter, stepped-wedge trial involving 13,800 older adults with advanced cancer across 29 outpatient oncology clinics. Practices in the trial received patient video tools and VitalTalk clinician training. The bundled intervention led to a statistically significant increase in electronic health record (EHR) ACP documentation (25.3% vs. 20.8% with usual care).

Both studies provide strong evidence that combining video-enhanced ACP with clinician training improves documentation of these discussions. What I loved most, though, is that the JGIM paper offers some of the first evidence that combining these approaches directly helps patients receive care aligned with their true values.