Study Summary:

During "late life" most Canadians will experience a critical illness, some will recover and some will die. The proliferation of life-sustaining technologies has resulted in important challenges at the intersection of aging and critical care. In direct response, our team is developing and evaluating a family-partnered care pathway for critically ill older patients (>70 years of age) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). A community of stakeholders jointly developed the program organized across three interconnected themes of work: 

Objectives: 

(1) Develop a family-partnered care pathway for critically ill older patients admitted to the ICU
(2) Conduct novel research projects to inform strategies for partnering with patients' families and address knowledge gaps within the pathway
(3) Perform a pilot implementation and evaluation of the family-partnered care pathway  

Principal Investigator: Dr. Thomas Stelfox

Study Team: Dr. Kirsten Fiest, Dr. Karla Krewulak, Israt Yasmeen, Nubia Zepeda