Background Advance Care Planning (ACP) enables persons to define goals and preferences for future medical treatments and care, to discuss, record and review these. Potentially, web-based programs can support patients in ACP. However, an overview of their effectiveness and feasibility is lacking.

Methods To provide an overview of the content, feasibility and effectiveness of web-based, interactive and patient-centered ACP programs, we systematically searched in 7 databases. We extracted data using the EAPC consensus concept of ACP as our framework.

Results The search identified 3434 records; 21 studies were included. Three additional studies were identified by hand search. The 24 studies evaluated 11 web-based ACP programs, developed in the USA (10) and Ireland (1). Most programs addressed exploration of goals, values and preferences, and ACP communication. Users considered programs as easy to use (7/7 studies) and not burdensome (7/8 studies). Users were satisfied with the programs (10/10 studies). ACP communication (11/11 studies) and ACP documentation (14/16 studies) increased. Two studies evaluated concordance between preferred and provided care. Designs of 10 studies allowed comparison before/after completing ACP programs or between study groups.

Conclusion(s) Most web-based ACP programs contain the important elements of ACP. Studies reported that programs tended to be effective and feasible. Evaluations of concordance between preferred and provided care are scarce. Web-based programs have potential to support patients, and scale up ACP. However, since many studies did not assess differences before/after or between groups, outcomes should be interpreted with caution.

Funding The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw).