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Advance care planning enables individuals to make choices about their future medical treatment in the event that they are cognitively impaired or otherwise unable to make their preferences known. The completed paper-based directive is kept in a safe place and copies of the document are given to the individual’s family, aged care provider, solicitor or appointed attorney for health matters.

Each state and territory in Australia has their own advance care directive (or advance health directive) form.

Context in digital health

The purpose of an electronic advance care planning document is to make an individual’s advance care planning information available through My Health Record.

There are a number of key business flows that occur within digital health in Australia, as outlined in Figure 1 below.

Common - Clinical Documents Diagram

Figure 1: Advance care planning high-level overview

These flows are described below:

The clinician enters the advance care planning information for a consumer in their local system which then uploads it to the consumer’s My Health Record. A clinician may access the advance care planning information via the consumer’s My Health Record, provided they have relevant access.

Feature specifications

The Australian Digital Health Agency has provided the following specifications that apply to the advance care planning described above:

Advance Care Planning v1.1

EP-3142:2020
Advance Care Planning documents are included in the My Health Record system to provide increased accessibility to a consumer’s advance care planning information nationwide.

Supporting specifications

Goals of Care v1.0

EP-3024:2020

The Goals of Care clinical document type is used to capture advance care information in alignment with Western Australia’s Goals of Patient Care Summary documents.

Roadmap

Roadmap: 
December, 2017
Completed
The scope of an electronic advance care planning document is to make an individual’s advance care planning information available through the individual’s My Health Record. This is the first release of this end product. It contains the technical specifications for the advance care planning document type. Advance care planning documents are included in the My Health Record system to provide increased accessibility to a consumer’s advance care planning information nationwide. Advance care planning information can include a statement by a competent person expressing decisions about his or her future care, should they become incapable of participating in medical treatment decisions.