Translating Frailty Assessment Methodologies and Research-based Evidence to Clinical Education and Practice.

Abstract

Frailty is a common clinical syndrome that predisposes older adults to an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. With population aging, this will become an increasing challenge for the healthcare services; therefore, different models of healthcare training and provision are required to address these increasing demands. In Ireland, the National Clinical Programme for Older People (NCPOP) has partnered with The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) to deliver the National Frailty Education Programme. This demonstrates an innovative way in which evidence-based longitudinal research can be translated into clinical education and practice to improve patient care, following a Knowledge to Action (KTA) process. To the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time that a longitudinal research study such as TILDA has employed such methods of translation and therefore, this collaboration could serve as an international model of translation and implementation for frailty and other areas of clinical priority.