Table 1.

ACT/RCPCH Categories[6]

Category	Key characteristic	Description	Examples
I	Potential for cure - life is threatened, not necessarily limited.	Conditions for which treatment may be feasible but can fail	Cancer
			Some cardiac anomalies
II	Period of normality despite having fatal diagnosis.	Conditions where premature death is inevitable but where there may be long periods of participation in normal activities	Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
III	Relentless deterioration from, or before, time of diagnosis.	Progressive conditions without curative treatment options, where treatment is exclusively palliative and commonly extends over many years	Metabolic or neurodegenerative conditions
IV	Unpredictable course whose progression is not easily judged from natural history.	Irreversible but non-progressive conditions causing likelihood of premature death through complications	Severe cerebral palsy
			Traumatic brain injury
			Septic brain injury