Background ACP (Advance Care Planning) is shared planning of the care process from diagnosis to end of life choices that involves patient, doctor and family. It helps patients with their decision-making capacity to guide their future health care decisions in the event that they become unable to participate directly in their own care.

Aim To recommend an innovative cost-effectiveness ICT solution that is able to: (i) improve the quality of life (QoL) through an ACP; (ii) place the patient at the core of his self-care, through a proactive approach; (iii) provide benefits for formal and informal caregivers in terms of healthcare system efficiency and costs reduction.

Methods To study and analyse possible implications in the use of ACP in an e-Health system, highlighting the emerging strengths and weaknesses in the fields involved, with particular regard to legal and ethical issues. Databases searched were: Cochrane, Pubmed, Scopus, ProQuest, Embase.

Results By entering into an e-Healthcare system, ACP functions as a dynamic tool editable and able to be costantly updated. It allows the sick person to be the protagonist of the choices that relate to his or her present condition and express preferences on what might happen. It also delivers guidelines for the implementation of ethical and legal preconditions that should be met in order to increase user acceptance and adoption of the technologies.

Conclusion Evidence suggests the proposed inclusion of the ACP into e-Healthcare requires careful consideration.