Frailty

Frailty is the age-related loss of physical reserve across multiple organ systems that makes patients more vulnerable to bad outcomes after stressors, like surgery. Our group studies how frailty affects patients after surgery and how surgeons can take frailty into account when they are talking with patients about what to expect from a potential operation. We are also interested in finding ways to help frail patients and surgeons make good decisions about whether to have an operation and how to make an operation safest for a frail patient. To study potential ways to improve the care of frail surgical patients (such as consulting a palliative care specialist), we are collaborating on the PAUSE Trial.