Project 458854

Frailty is the body's inability to respond well to stressors in aging patients. Sarcopenia means having less muscle and less strength in the body. Having decreased amount of muscle and strength can lead to a greater risk for developing disabilities, getting hospitalized and dying. Both frailty and sarcopenia are common in elderly people with heart disease and these diseases are very expensive for the healthcare system. There is a need to find a quick and efficient way of detecting frailty in heart-disease patients in the hospital. No single blood test result can predict frailty, but some blood tests together have been associated with frailty and aging in older adults living at home. There is no research on using a panel of blood tests to detect frailty in hospitalized heart-disease patients. We hypothesize that a computer model trained to read blood test results could detect frailty in heart disease patients presenting to the hospital. In step 1, we will work with a computer scientist to make a computer program trained to detect frailty based on the amount of muscle in the body and blood test results. In step 2, we will test our computer program on blood test results from 8 hospitals in Quebec to see if we can predict these patients' hospital length of stay, survival and whether they get discharged to an institution. In step 3, we will implement our computer program to three hospitals in Quebec and ask clinicians to provide us with feedback on its impact and usefulness when making decisions for patients' care plan. Our computer program will help doctors make safer and more personalized care plans, reducing patient's risk. Our computer program will be able to detect frailty without extra personnel or financial resources and it will also allow for appropriate resource allocation. Finally, this computer program would allow for the detection of frailty in patients who are too frail to do frailty assessments, as it does not require active participation from patients.