Making advances in delirium research: coupling delirium outcomes research and data sharing

Excerpt

Understanding and improving the current management of delirium in critically ill patients has become a major challenge for clinicians at the bedside and researchers. In the past decade significant advances have been made increasing our knowledge on the epidemiology, clinical phenotype, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and risk assessment of delirium [1]. As clinicians in the intensive care unit (ICU), being able to predict the occurrence of delirium early in the course of critical illness may be extremely useful for the implementation of preventive measures or to design interventions for preemptive treatment of high-risk individuals. In a recent study Wassenaar et al. [2] demonstrated the ability to predict delirium with a relatively straightforward model for implementation at ICU admission. …