Following a publication on defining advance care planning (ACP) in dementia and what it entails, a second publication on the 33-country Delphi study addresses policy and research gaps.

Evidence-based policy should shape strategic priorities to guide professionals. The taskforce of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) chaired by Dr Jenny van der Steen (LUMC) and Dr Ida Korfage (Erasmus MC) has developed policy and research recommendations for ACP. The second article, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, was based on analyses of the Delphi panel evaluations of the recommendations and identification of gaps from open-ended items by two visiting Professors at LUMC, Associate Professor Miharu Nakanishi from Japan, and Prof. Sandra Martins Pereira from Portugal. The recommendations concern advance directives regulation, equity of access, and dementia inclusive approaches and conversations to express patients’ values. An evidence-based dementia-specific practice model is needed, while health services frameworks should enable a dementia-inclusive practice. The consensus-based recommendations and identification of research and policy gaps provide key starting points for discussion across multiple stakeholders including people with dementia.

Read the full publication here