As our population continues to age, providers, patients, and their families will continue to struggle with how best to assess and help frail geriatric patients. The Essential Frailty Toolset (EFT) helps providers tease out the association between frailty and surgical mortality.

An app called Frailty Tool draws on the EFT and the expanded EFT for use at the point of care. The app provides this exact toolset for smart devices but fails to include any information about the supporting literature or how best to use the score.

Overall, it's a useful calculator that brings recently published literature to the point of care. The app permits providers and surgeons the ability to calculate the 1-year mortality risk from common cardiovascular procedures due to a patient's underlying frailty. This can be used with patients and their families to assess and discuss surgical versus non-surgical options.

Likes

Slick user interface with built-in calculators, illustrations, and timing capabilities
Contains expanded toolset in addition to the more rapid calculator
Brings recent evidence on frailty and its connection to operative mortality to the POC
Available for iOS and Android

Dislikes

No references
Minimal information on how to interpret the results
No information about the validity and reliability of the scale

Source: Douglas Maurer DO, MPH, FAAFP - MedPage Today

Tech Watch

iMedicalApps: App Assesses Frailty in Older Patients - But doesn't help interpret results and lacks references