Study	Country, setting	Diagnosis of person at end of life (EoL); selection criteria	Demographics	Intervention target
Agar 2017   Cluster‐RCT 2 arms	Australia   Residential care facilities in major cities	Advanced dementia; selection criteria identified people with average survival < 6 months   Carers no information	Age (years): intervention mean 84.7 (standard deviation (SD) 7.9), usual care (UC) 85.8 (SD 8.2)   Gender: intervention 61% female, UC 58% female	Residents with dementia Family member/ friend involved in decisions on patient's behalf
Au 2012   Cluster‐RCT 2 arms	USA   Outpatient clinics, Veterans' Affairs centres	COPD Clinician primarily responsible for COPD care (primary care and chest clinics)   Excluded: cognitive dysfunction, language barriers or severe psychiatric disorders	Age (years): patients mean 69.4 both arms   Gender: patients: intervention 97.9% male, UC 96.2% male clinicians: intervention 50% male, UC 44% male	Patients with COPD Clinicians  Surrogates
Bernacki 2019   Cluster‐RCT 3 arms (2 control; data from 2 arms available)	USA   Hospital clinics	Advanced, incurable cancer; life expectancy < 12 months and identified surrogates (family member/ friend)   Clinicians: oncology physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants caring for patients (advanced incurable cancer and life expectancy < 12 months) at least 1‐half day per week   Excluded: cognitive impairment, unable to speak English or identify a surrogate. Clinicians participating in concurrent studies, or working with both intervention and control arms	Age (years): patients: intervention 61.8, UC 62.1    Gender: patients: intervention 53.7% female, UC 52.8% female clinicians: intervention 62.5% female, UC 51.2% female	Patients with cancer Clinicians  Surrogates
Clayton 2007   RCT 2 arms	Australia   Palliative care services	Advanced, progressive, life‐limiting conditions Carer (spouse, partner, family member, friend)   Clinicians: palliative care physicians who endorsed question prompt list (QPL) use	Age (years): intervention: mean 65.5 (SD 12.6), UC 64.6  (SD 14.1)   Gender: intervention 39% female, UC 40% female	Patients Carer
Epstein 2017   Cluster‐RCT 2 arms	USA   Community‐based cancer clinics, academic medical centres, community hospitals	Advanced cancer; mean life expectancy 9 to 12 months Carers (family member, partner, friend, other involved in health care) Oncologists   Excluded: inpatients, those in hospice, unable to understand spoken English or provide written informed consent, patient/carer without decisional capacity	Age (years): patients: mean 64.4  carers: not reported physicians: mean 44    Gender: patients: 55% female carers: not reported physicians: 29% female	Patients Carers  Oncologists   73% of patients nominated a carer
Lautrette 2007   RCT 2 arms	France   Intensive care (medical and surgical) units	ICU (acute respiratory failure, coma, shock, acute renal failure, cardiac arrest; expected to die within days)   Excluded: patients < 18 years, surrogates without sufficient French for telephone interview	Age (years): patients: intervention median 68, UC 74  surrogates: intervention median 54, UC 54    Gender: patients: intervention 41% female, UC 48% female surrogates: intervention 77% female, UC 70% female	Surrogate decision makers (primarily family members): 40% spouses, 48% children
Reinhardt 2014   RCT 2 arms	USA   Large nursing facility in major city (New York)	Advanced dementia Family members/surrogates (patient’s primary contact)	Age (years): intervention: mean 59.6 (SD 12.3), UC mean 58.9 (SD 11.9)   Gender: intervention: 78.7% female, UC 80% female	Surrogates
Walczak 2017   RCT 2 arms	Australia   Hospital‐affiliated cancer treatment centres	Advanced, incurable cancer; oncologist‐assessed life expectancy 2 to 12 months   Informal primary carers > 18 years participated if nominated by patient   Excluded: non‐English speaking, those with cognitive impairment or significant psychological morbidity	Age (years): intervention: mean 63.8, UC: mean 65.6    Gender: 34.5% female	Patients, with or without primary informal carers