Abstract
Since many patients die without considering organ/tissue donation （OTD）, it is crucial to ascertain their end-of-life wishes in advance. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of using explanatory documents （OTD） in helping physicians ascertain and record patients’ wishes in their medical charts. This study was a randomized controlled trial conducted in Japan. Explanatory documents with and without OTD descriptions were used. The primary outcome was to identify whether physicians recorded patient’s OTD wishes in their medical charts. More specifically, 30 physicians were included in the analysis, 27 of whom had no OTD experience. Of the 16 physicians who used documents with OTD information, 11 （40.7％; p＜0.001） created records. On the contrary, none of the 11 physicians who used documents without OTD information created any records. Among physicians with no OTD experience, those who used explanatory documents that included OTD information were found to record patients’ OTD wishes in their medical charts significantly more frequently. Conclusively, when physicians lacking OTD experience used documents with OTD information, they were more likely to ascertain patients’ wishes regarding OTD than when using documents without such information. Our findings demonstrate that the use of explanatory documents with OTD information could standardize the contents and timing of ascertaining patients’ OTD wishes. Our results could therefore contribute to the establishment of a healthcare system that respects all patients’ wishes during end-of-life care.
