Grant: Catalyst Grant: eHealth Innovations - Aging

Delirium is a common, serious complication of medical care that robs its victims of the ability to think clearly and make sense of their environment. Delirium appears suddenly, can cause hallucinations and fearful, agitated behaviour, and unfortunately can result in a prolonged or even permanent decline in the ability to think clearly. Older adults in the Emergency Department (ED) are at high risk of developing delirium. Currently, ED staff have difficulty detecting delirium, in part because patients with delirium will have fluctuations in their level of confusion over time, and may at times seem normal. The purpose of this study is to test an interactive computer program that checks patients' ability to think clearly. The computer program uses a tablet format familiar to many older Canadians. Ultimately, this new technology promises to allow hospital staff to predict which patients are becoming delirious, and to then take actions to prevent delirium.