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To ensure that people are afforded every opportunity to make informed decisions about end-of-life care and to understand the range of medical and palliative options, the kn

Federal and state policymakers should support: 

Policymakers should support programs to help patients plan their advance care and create clear, comprehensive advance health care directives to be shared with providers and loved ones. 

Policymakers should support research to gather information that would further improve the quality of end-of-life care. Such research should focus on: 

The federal government should play a strong role in protecting patient rights to direct their care and make other decisions.

The federal government and states should encourage advance care planning. They should establish and support decision-making protocols such as Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment.

While the FDA focuses most of its energies on the pre-market review process for approving devices, it should not neglect the post-market surveillance system.

Policymakers should ensure that the FDA’s process for approval and oversight of medical devices to protect public health and safety is thorough, efficient, and not unduly burdensome. 

Device companies should be prohibited from promoting a device for uses not approved by the FDA.