Due to the emergent nature of critical illness, patients' baseline (pre-illness) function is often unclear. Nevertheless, baseline physical and cognitive function are important factors in the development of acute, ICU-relate syndromes of weakness and delirium. Baseline frailty is an important marker of mortality and disability. Yet many clinicians in the ICU are not equipped with the tools to assess these important vulnerability factors. This talk will cover important and clinically applicable means by which to measure how patients were functioning prior to being admitted to the ICU.
