D'Or Institute for Research & Education

Intensive care units (ICUs) are environments specialized in the care of critically ill patients. Despite significant advances, ICUs are often seen as a dehumanized environment. Among the various stressors in ICUs, anxiety, pain, psychomotor agitation and mental confusion, need for mechanical restraint, lack of privacy, noise, restricted visiting time with family members and excessive lighting stand out. The tripod composed of pain, anxiety and delirium (often associated with the presence of psychomotor agitation, mental confusion and altered level of consciousness) has a high incidence and morbidity. A set of prevention, intensity reduction and treatment measures has been proposed for these conditions, with a growing number of scientific evidence supporting their routine use.
Elderly patients tend to be particularly susceptible to the stressors described above. This aspect represents an additional source of concern for ICUs, since the elderly today represent the majority of patients admitted to ICUs. Hospitalization in ICUs after surgical procedures is often an unknown moment for the individual and, consequently, associated with the development of numerous unpleasant sensations, directly interfering with the patient's recovery.
Music as a therapy tool in medical practice has been used since 1890. After a little more than two decades, in 1914 it was applied in a surgical procedure by physician Evan Kane as a way of "calming patients and diverting attention from fear". associated with combined therapy with local anesthesia. In this context, being a low-cost tool, with minimal adverse effects and high acceptability, the use of music has proven to be a great ally in the arsenal of non-pharmacological therapies for the prevention of delirium, anxiety and pain.
We intend, through a randomized multicenter clinical trial, to investigate whether the use of music as therapy is capable of reducing the incidence of anxiety, pain and delirium in elderly patients undergoing surgical procedures and hospitalized during the postoperative period in intensive care units.

This study evaluates the feasibility and preliminary impacts of a new parenting program consisting of a series of educational videos, automatically delivered via a popular texting platform. The program content for the feasibility study is focused on teaching parents strategies to better manage one of the commonly reported challenges that children face, a transition to a non-preferred activity. Parents with young children experiencing behavior difficulties with daily transition routines are invited to participate in the study.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Invasively ventilated patients in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience significantly higher mortality compared to those in High income countries (HICs). Direct application of HIC strategies to LMICs maybe ineffective due to context-specific challenges. This study aims to leverage the Intensive Care Registry of Uganda (ICRU) to identify ICU structural and process-related modifiable factors that impact patient outcomes in a low income country.
Methods: The MOTIVATE-ICU is a prospective multicentre observational study in invasively ventilated patients. It involves a registry-embedded component examining patient- and process-related factors and a cross-sectional survey on ICU organizational structures. Inclusion criteria encompass patients aged ≥ 15 years undergoing IMV in Ugandan ICUs. Primary outcomes are ICU mortality, ICU length of stay (LOS), and duration of ventilation. Secondary outcomes include ventilator-associated complications, non-pulmonary organ support. tTracheostomy outcomes will be explored in a pre-planned substudy. Factors potentially associated with outcomes will be categorized into two groups; non-modifiable factors and potentially modifiable. Non-modifiable factors will include patient-related factors like age, comorbidities and illness severity; potentially modifiable factors include processes of care (e.g. sedation levels) and ICU organizational structure (e.g. staffing patterns). Multilevel multivariable logistic regression will be utilized to study associations, with both patient and ICU level fixed effects considered.
Ethics and Dissemination: Given its observational nature, this study seeks a waiver for patient individual informed consent. Data anonymization ensures patient privacy. Following the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, relevant ethical approvals will be acquired. Study findings will be disseminated through conferences and peer-reviewed journals.