Grant: Project Grant

Each year 230,000 Canadians are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). An average of 40% will develop ICU acquired weakness (ICUAW), experiencing muscle loss and weakness that is sometimes permanent, causing disability. Patients 65 or older, in the ICU for 2 weeks or more, have a 50% chance they will never feed, bathe or dress themselves without help again. There is currently no treatment or preventative therapy for ICUAW. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) therapy, when muscles are electrically stimulated to contract, can maintain and strengthen muscle. For patients sedated in the ICU and unable to participate in exercise/mobility therapy to strengthen muscle, NMES is especially promising. Unfortunately it has been difficult to establish NMES as a standard therapy in the complex ICU environment. The time required for therapists to set up the electrodes on each muscle and ensure the patient is comfortable without pain throughout, makes it operationally difficult to use. There is also no way for the therapist to measure the contraction to ensure it is adequate. We are developing custom devices with sensors and systems that will use artificial intelligence techniques to monitor and quantify NMES-induced contractions mechanically and electrically, while ensuring patient comfort. This will provide therapists tools to easily monitor ICU patients receiving NMES therapy. The tools we develop will give clinicians never-before available data and insights to ensure the efficacy of NMES therapy sessions in the ICU and improve therapy outcomes. We are an interdisciplinary team of physicians, physiotherapists, engineers and computer scientists working together on this complex challenge. If we are successful, our work will be used to automate NMES delivery, vastly improving the feasibility of effective NMES delivery, even in the unresponsive patient, to prevent ICUAW. This work has the potential to improve quality of life and outcomes for critical illness survivors.