Yen YF, Lee YL, Hu HY, et al. - In this prospective study, experts used Palliative Care Screening Tool (PCST) to assess individuals’ palliative care requirements between 2015 and 2016 and followed cases for 3 months in order to investigate the ability of the PCST to prognosticate mortality, and investigate influences of a pragmatic advance care planning (ACP) program targeted by PCST on the utilisation of life-sustaining treatment during the last three months of life. Of 47,153 hospitalized people, 10.4% had PCST score ≥ 4. Following controlling for covariates, PCST score ≥ 4 was significantly related to higher mortality within 3 months of screening. Thus, the utility of executing a comprehensive palliative care program to recognize individuals with palliative care needs and promote ACP and advance directives (AD) in East Asia was shown. Moreover, ACP consultation and AD completion were correlated with decreased utilization of life-sustaining treatments during the last 3 months of life.