Firm Puts Patients' Health Care Wishes on Video

Financial professionals should encourage clients to think about the medical care they would want during critical health events, and especially during such events that might be fatal, according to Dr. Ferdinando Mirarchi.

Mirarchi has tried to help more patients create effective critical health event instructions by starting My Informed Decision on VidEO, or MIDEO.

The Erie, Pennsylvania-based firm sells a mobile phone application and call center assistance services that can guide users through the process of recording legally binding versions of advance health care directives and other care-planning documents in a digital video format.

The firm also provides video storage services, wallet cards, refrigerator magnets and even jewelry to help users make loved ones and health care providers aware of the existence and location of the videos. In the videos, users can cover topics such as whether they would want to have feeding tubes or oxygen in certain scenarios.

What it means: Whatever clients decide to do about advance care wishes, informing them about their opportunity to create the directives is an increasingly important part of financial and estate planning.

More than 5 million patients enter U.S. hospital intensive care units every year, according to the Society of Critical Care Medicine.