More healthcare organizations across Ontario are adopting a tool developed at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) to help patients and caregivers have clearer, more informed conversations about future healthcare decisions before a medical crisis occurs.
Created by RVH physicians Dr. Giulio DiDiodato, Dr. Chris Martin, and Dr. Doug Austgarden, ASKmeGOC is a research-backed, web-based tool that supports conversations about treatment preferences, resuscitation decisions, and overall goals of care.
For many patients and caregivers, these conversations happen for the first time during a health crisis, when emotions are high and decisions need to be made quickly. ASKmeGOC is helping shift those discussions earlier, giving people more time, support, and information to reflect on what matters most to them.
ASKmeGOC helps patients and caregivers better understand their options and creates space for thoughtful conversations in hospital, primary care and community settings, rather than during urgent or emotionally overwhelming situations.
The tool is now being implemented by hospitals, primary care teams, and community organizations across the province, including the Muskoka Almaguin Ontario Health Team and several of its member organizations, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, Niagara Health, Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, Sault Area Hospital, Hotel Dieu Shaver Rehabilitation Hospital, Victoria Village, RVH’s Family Medicine Teaching Unit, and other healthcare partners.
“This is a strong example of how community-based research can scale beyond a single organization,” said Dr. Giulio DiDiodato, Chief Research Scientist at RVH. “We designed ASKmeGOC to work in real-world settings, and now we’re seeing it adopted across hospitals, primary care, and community teams. That growth is important because, at its core, this tool is about improving the patient experience. It helps create a supportive environment where patients and caregivers can better understand their options, ask questions and make decisions that reflect their values and wishes.”
ASKmeGOC is grounded in evidence from Canada’s largest randomized clinical trial conducted in a community hospital, funded by the Alectra Fund for Healthcare & Social Innovation. The tool provides healthcare teams with a consistent approach to goals-of-care discussions while helping ensure conversations remain patient-centred and aligned with each person’s understanding of their health and treatment preferences.
In communities like Sundridge and across Muskoka, healthcare teams are already seeing the benefits of having these conversations earlier and in less pressured settings.
“By having these conversations earlier in primary care, patients and caregivers can explore their wishes in a calmer, more supportive way,” said Dr. Sarah MacKinnon, Lead Physician at Sundridge & District Medical Centre. “It helps people feel more informed and better prepared, while making sure care decisions reflect what matters most to them.”
Healthcare teams say the tool is also helping create a more coordinated experience for patients as they move between different parts of the healthcare system.
“My experience with the program has been very positive,” said Dr. Melanie Mar, Chief of Family Medicine at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare and Medical Director of the Algonquin Family Health Team. “It’s reassuring to know patients have already had thoughtful conversations about their goals of care and better understand their options before they arrive in more acute care settings.”
By enabling trained healthcare professionals, such as nurses, paramedics, and social workers to help lead goals-of-care conversations, ASKmeGOC is also helping ensure patients and caregivers receive consistent support regardless of where they access care while reducing administrative burden for physicians.
Funding for ASKmeGOC was provided through the Health Care Unburdened Grant program. The program, supported by the Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank, helps reduce administrative burden in healthcare so physicians can take better care of themselves and their patients. The funding is helping expand the reach of ASKmeGOC to hospitals, long term care, family health teams and community organizations across Ontario.
As adoption continues to grow, ASKmeGOC is helping more patients and caregivers across Ontario have earlier, clearer, and more supported conversations about their healthcare wishes.
