Project 462915

Invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) is a common form of life support provided in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that is increasing worldwide, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to 80% of patients will survive an ICU stay requiring IMV, but many will experience downstream physical and mental health sequelae. Understanding long-term outcomes has therefore been identified as an important priority in research by major critical care organizations. Our research group is uniquely positioned by having access to two important data sources: The iCORE Registry (containing granular data from ~20,000 ICU patients requiring mechanical ventilation from 9 different ICUs), and the ICES databases (which contain long-term administrative data from the Province of Ontario). We propose a research program that combines these two data sources. When linked, these combined datasets will not only provide granular data related to IMV, but also long-term outcome data. There are few, if any, groups worldwide with access to similar data. This work has the potential to 1) Provide some of the first evidence of the relationship between specific IMV variables and long-term physical, mental, and resource impacts; 2) Develop tools for prognostication among patients receiving IMV that can be made widely accessible; and 3) Identify important outcomes among patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for respiratory failure, a particularly invasive therapy growing in popularity, for which long-term data is severely lacking. IMV is a treatment that is received by tens of thousands of Canadians annually, and therefore this program of research can impact a large and diverse population. Finally, particularly in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this work can help us identify the needs of a growing population of patients, and help prepare the health care system to anticipate what resources and supports will be necessary to care for survivors of severe COVID-19.