Description

Introduction

The aging population in Canada is greatly contributing to the growing number of older adults undergoing elective surgery. Approximately 48% of inpatient surgeries in Canada were aged at least 65 years old in 2021. Currently, the standard preoperative assessment does not include evaluations designed to address the needs of older adults. Increasing age is associated with changing physiology along with increasing comorbidity, polypharmacy, functional impairment, and cognitive impairment. Frailty (reduced physiologic reserve) is common but not universal. However, frailty in surgical settings vary between 13% to 84%, depending on the frailty evaluation tool used. Various systematic reviews have also identified an association between frailty and adverse events after surgery, including increased rates of postoperative complications, mortality, and discharge to a location other than home. The British Geriatric Society and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons thus recommend GA for OAs requiring non-oncological surgery. A GA has 8 key assessment domains (i.e. comorbidity, functional status, medications, falls risk, nutrition, social supports, cognition, mood), each of which is relevant to the "staging of the aging" and development of personalized treatment plans for older adults. In non-oncological surgery settings, GA can help reduce the risk of adverse outcomes of surgery, and optimize the health and functional status of older adults in the preoperative stage. However, GA has not been widely implemented in surgical settings due to the lack of time, training, and access to advanced geriatric services. An innovative, scalable solution is a patient self-completed electronic GA tool.

The investigators designed the CHAMP tool, a self-reported online GA that can be completed by older adults at home or in the clinic prior to the participants' medical appointment. The process for developing CHAMP included the following steps: i) a systematic review and a Delphi Panel of expert clinicians to select the final domains and items/questionnaires; ii) design sessions with older adults with cancer to develop the layout and contact of the tool; iii) usability sessions with older adults with cancer to finalize the tool; and iv) design sessions with oncology clinicians to develop the tool's clinician interface. The CHAMP tool is now ready for field testing.

The study objectives are to measure feasibility outcomes and efficacy of the tool in the identification of geriatric issues and development of care plan strategies.

Methods

A total of 210 older adults (70+y) who have been referred to any kind of non-oncological surgery will be recruited from 4 centres -University Health Network, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, St. Michael's Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital. Older adults who agree to participate will be asked to provide information on sociodemographic characteristics and comfort with technology prior to completing the CHAMP tool. Subsequently, participants will be asked to complete the tool either prior to clinic (at home via internet) or in clinic (via iPad) prior to the participants' consultation with the clinician. Following completion of the CHAMP tool and prior to treatment decision making visit with the clinician, a member of the research team will provide the CHAMP results to the clinician. The clinician will be asked the proposed treatment plan and whether the patient is fit, vulnerable, or frail using standard definitions. Then, the clinician will be asked of whether the treatment plan intent is being modified based on the CHAMP tool. The CHAMP tool also contains evidence-based recommendations for clinicians on strategies to reduce risk and address geriatric domains. Surveys will be used to assess participants' and clinicians' satisfaction with the tool.