Clinical Evaluation Program of DeltaScan (Ward)

Rationale: Delirium, or acute brain failure, presents as an acute confusional state, and is associated with prolonged hospitalization, an increased risk of dementia, institutionalization and mortality, as well as increased costs. Early detection of delirium would allow for early treatment and improved patient outcomes, but delirium is often not recognized and treatment is therefore delayed or not applied at all. Additionally, current screening tools are subjective, so an alternative, more objective diagnostic tool for early delirium detection is desired. The DeltaScan, a CE-certified device to detect delirium using brief EEG recording, has been recently been found have diagnostic properties that outperform the currently used screening tools.

Objective: To quantify the impact of the use of the DeltaScan on patient outcome (detection rate of delirium and duration of admission) in patients with high risk of delirium compared to the currently used delirium screening tools.

Study design: A prospective multicenter stepped wedge cluster randomized trials in (at least) 6 non-ICU departments.

Study population: Elderly admitted to non-ICU departments with high risk of delirium.

Intervention: During 12 months, frail elderly admitted to a non-ICU department of participating hospitals with high risk of delirium will be included in the study. First, all hospitals will apply 'usual care' to all patients, i.e. standard delirium screening (e.g. Delirium Observation Screening (DOS) or other currently used tools) in combination with a delirium treatment protocol and subsequent management without application of the DeltaScan for a period of 3 months. Then, during a 6 month period, each 5 weeks, starting at day 0, randomly allocated hospitals will sequentially start to apply the DeltaScan in all eligible patients (intervention period). During the last 3 months of the study all hospitals will participate in the intervention period.

Main study endpoints:

Primary endpoints: delirium detection rate (i.e. proportion of positive assessments according to the delirium detection tool), and duration of admission at the non-ICU department. Secondary endpoints: time interval between admission and the first delirium positive assessment, number of days with at least one positive delirium assessment, delirium incidence, hospital mortality, and direct medical costs of hospitalization.

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: During the intervention period EEG recordings using the CE-certified DeltaScan will be made using a strip with EEG electrodes that will be mounted to the head using self-adhesive gel. The EEG recording will be performed two to three times daily and takes 3-4 minutes. During the usual care period the patients will receive the standard delirium screening tool for delirium assessment by a nurse. This assessment will be performed two to three times daily and takes 2-4 minutes depending on the screening tools that is used. Since the DeltaScan has shown to have superior diagnostic performance compared to the DSM5 the burden/risk of misclassification is lower than with the current standard for delirium assessment. Based on the above we consider the burden to participants in this study to be minimal.


Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Admitted to the non-ICU hospital department, defined as a cardio thoracic surgery or geriatric traumatology
* At risk of delirium, defined according to local protocol:

A. Frail elderly, defined according to local protocol B. That underwent surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

* Admitted because of a primary neurological or neurosurgical disease.
* Patients who cannot clinically assessed for delirium, e.g. due to a language barrier or deafness.
* Known pre-existing dementia.
* We decided to add an extra exclusion criteria: Patients infected with SARS-CoV-19 infection