Medicinewill

Medicinewill is a term used in discussions of health informatics and medical ethics to denote a hypothetical framework for aligning medical decision-making with patient wishes and clinical guidelines. It envisions an integrated system that encodes patient preferences, legal directives, and contextual factors into actionable care plans while ensuring patient safety and evidence-based practice. The concept draws on the principles of patient autonomy, informed consent, and advance care planning, and it seeks to harmonize them with real-time clinical data and standard treatment pathways.

In practice, a medicinewill framework would collect data from advance directives, durable power of attorney arrangements, value-oriented surveys, and electronic health records, and continually reconcile them with current guidelines, drug interactions, and prognostic information. It would produce recommended treatment options, prioritize interventions consistent with patient values, and prompt clinicians and patients to confirm or modify plans through consent workflows. The system would also include audit trails, data governance, and privacy safeguards to address confidentiality and accountability.

Status and reception: Medicinewill remains a conceptual and evolving idea rather than an established standard. Several pilots and theoretical models explore how such a framework could support shared decision making and reduce unwanted interventions, but challenges persist, including data quality, interoperability, bias, liability, and the need for clear human oversight.

See also: Advanced directive, Patient autonomy, Shared decision making, Clinical decision support systems.