Glossary

Care (or treatment) options
refer to the range of possible preventive, diagnostic, treatment, palliative, rehabilitative, and supportive care choices that could be offered to a patient to achieve their health outcome goals.

Care (or treatment) preferences
refer to the healthcare activities (e.g., medications, self-management tasks, healthcare visits, diagnostic testing, and procedures) that patients are willing and able (or not willing or able) to do.

Current care planning
The core of Patient Priorities Care is that patients’ current care addresses what matters to them at every health stage. It is about what is happening now in their health care.

Health outcome goals
are the health and life outcomes that patients’ desire from their healthcare. (See SMART goals.)

Health priorities
refer to the health outcome goals patients most desire within the context of their care preferences (i.e., what they are willing and able to do to achieve those health outcome goals).

Health trajectory
is how a person’s health and functioning will likely change in the future.

Patient engagement
refers to the patient becoming an active partner in the Patient Priorities Care identification and alignment process.

Patient priorities aligned care
involves aligning healthcare decision-making and care with patients’ own health priorities.

Patient Priorities Care facilitator
is a trained member of the healthcare team who helps patients construct their health priorities and works with clinicians and patients to better align care with patients’ health priorities.

Patient Priorities Care identification process
Patients identify their health priorities, potentially with the help of a trained facilitator.

SMART goals
are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely goals which are aligned with what matters most (i.e., patients’ values). A desired SMART outcome goal might be, “Relief of fatigue to the extent that he/she can participate in senior center activities at least two mornings a week”.

Tradeoffs
are made when the patient needs to choose, balance, or exchange among their health priorities.

Treatment burden
refers to the workload imposed by healthcare on patients and caregivers, and the effect this workload has on quality of life. Categories of workload include medications; self-management tasks; procedures; diagnostic and laboratory tests; and healthcare utilization, including clinician visits, hospitalization, physical and occupational therapy.