American Bar Association launches My Health Care Wishes, an advanced care directives app

My Health Care Wishes

Although most Americans think it’s a good idea to talk with their loved ones about end-of-life care, less than 30% have actually done it. With the newly launched My Health Care Wishes apps for iPhone and Android, this process is easy as possible, saving all of the relevant information in your smartphone.

The application allows users to store and share important health care wishes so they can access it as a PDF in an emergency. Available as free (Lite) and paid (Pro) versions, My Health Care Wishes provides confidentiality of information (since the data resides only on your smartphone), while grabbing contact information from your contacts list. The summary of health care wishes can be shown or sent via text or email to health care providers, and there’s also the ability to import advance directive document(s) via email or upload from a computer, and email this document to loved ones and health care professionals when needed. Furthermore, the application will store key contact information on primary and secondary proxies, and primary care physician.

My Health Care Wishes allows users to store and share important health care wishes so they can access it as a PDF in an emergency.At any moment, you can edit and update documents, and let the application keep track of document versions by date entered. And to make sure you do this on a regular basis, My Health Care Wishes will send you annual email reminders.

The Pro version, which is selling for $3.99, builds on top of that to include even more functionality, with unlimited storage of people profiles and documents.

You can store advance directives, living wills, health care powers of attorney (HCPOA, health care proxy), DNR orders, and POLSTs (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment). It also allows you to create a digital library containing your advance care plan and those of your spouse, parents, children, and anyone you care for. Your loved ones may be away at college, in a retirement community or nursing home, working in a different city, or under the same roof. Finally, this version also includes ABA multi-state power of attorney toolkit PDF for use in most states, and can sync files with your DropBox account.

My Health Care Wishes Lite (FREE) [iTunes link] [Google Play Store]
My Health Care Wishes Pro ($3.99) [iTunes link] [Google Play Store]