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Screening for delirium in the intensive care unit using eDIS-ICU - A purpose-designed app: A pilot study
Anna-Liisa Sutt1, Dylan Flaws2, Hayley Gunn3
1Critical Care Research Group, Adult Intensive Care Services, The Prince Charles Hospital, Clinical Sciences Building, Rode Road, Chermside 4032, Brisbane, Australia; Northside Medical School, University of Queensland, The Prince Charles Hospital, Rode Road, Chermside 4032, Brisbane, Australia.
A new app, eDIS-ICU, shows promise for efficiently screening intensive care unit (ICU) patients for delirium. This pilot study suggests eDIS-ICU is a viable alternative to current methods for delirium detection.
Area of Science:
- Critical Care Medicine
- Neuroscience
- Digital Health
Background:
- Delirium is a frequent ICU complication with inconsistent clinical diagnosis.
- Existing screening tools often require specialist expertise, training, and can be time-consuming.
- There is a need for efficient and sensitive delirium screening methods in routine ICU practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the performance of a novel mobile application, eDIS-ICU, for delirium screening in ICU patients.
- To compare the eDIS-ICU tool against the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) and DSM-V criteria.
Main Methods:
- A prospective, single-centre pilot study involving 29 ICU patients.
- Patients were screened using eDIS-ICU and CAM-ICU by clinician researchers.
- Delirium diagnosis was confirmed by an expert clinician using DSM-V criteria.
Main Results:
- The eDIS-ICU tool demonstrated a sensitivity of 86% compared to 29% for CAM-ICU.
- Specificity for eDIS-ICU was 73% versus 96% for CAM-ICU.
- eDIS-ICU correctly identified 6 out of 7 participants with delirium, while CAM-ICU identified only 2.
Conclusions:
- The eDIS-ICU tool is a simple, novel, and effective method for delirium screening in the ICU.
- eDIS-ICU was found to be non-inferior to CAM-ICU in detecting delirium based on DSM-V criteria.
- Further validation studies are recommended to confirm these findings.
