New horizons in frailty identification via electronic frailty indices: early implementation lessons from experiences in England and the United States

Abstract

Frailty represents an integrative prognostic marker of risk that associates with a myriad of age-related adverse outcomes in older adults. As a concept, frailty can help to target scarce resources and identify subgroups of vulnerable older adults that may benefit from interventions or changes in medical management, such as pursing less aggressive glycaemic targets for frail older adults with diabetes. In practice, however, there are several operational challenges to implementing frailty screening outside the confines of geriatric medicine. Electronic frailty indices (eFIs) based on the theory of deficit accumulation, derived from routine data housed in the electronic health record, have emerged as a rapid, feasible and valid approach to screen for frailty at scale. The goal of this paper is to describe the early experience of three diverse groups in developing, implementing and adopting eFIs (The English National Health Service, US Department of Veterans Affairs and Atrium Health-Wake Forest Baptist). These groups span different countries and organisational complexity, using eFIs for both research and clinical care, and represent different levels of progress with clinical implementation. Using an implementation science framework, we describe common elements of successful implementation in these settings and set an agenda for future research and expansion of eFI-informed initiatives.

Keywords: deficit accumulation; electronic health record; frailty; implementation science; older people; population health management.

Figure 1

Potential opportunities for clinical interventions informed by frailty screening. ACP denotes advanced care planning. Many of the potential interventions could be utilised across the spectrum of frailty. For example, physical activity or other exercise interventions could also be beneficial in moderate frailty.