The ICU Care Plan: Human-Centered Design of a Tool to Support Time-Limited Trials for Older Adults With Critical Illness.

ABSTRACT:

Background

For older adults with critical illness, decisions about life-sustaining therapies can be challenging. A time-limited trial (TLT) is a collaborative care plan endorsed by experts in palliative and critical care to help navigate these challenges. TLTs entail trying life-sustaining therapy for a defined duration. Response to treatment then informs whether to continue recovery-directed care or shift focus exclusively to comfort. TLTs require collaboration among clinicians, patients, and/or surrogate decision makers, yet there is little practical guidance on how to accomplish this. Thus, we sought to design a collaborative TLT planning tool and characterize its valued characteristics.

Methods

In this qualitative study framed by human-centered Design Thinking, we conduc

SUBMITTER: Mortenson SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12650797 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature