Sunnybrook's DPEP Empowers Patients to Protect Their Brain Health Before and After Surgery

Patients who could be at a higher risk of developing problems with thinking and memory after surgery now have a new online resource to help minimize the likelihood and impact of some cognitive issues.

Earlier this year, the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre launched the Direct-to-Patient Education Program (DPEP). It is the brainchild of anesthesiologist Dr. Stephen Choi, who saw the importance of including patients and their caregivers in the efforts to protect a patient’s brain health before and after surgery.

“I see patients as the fourth partner in a successful surgery—they're alongside the surgeons, anesthetists, and allied health professionals,” he said. “In fact, they are arguably the most important component of it, and sometimes we have been guilty of unintentionally treating them like a nameless, faceless patients. I wanted them to be involved in this initiative because brain health is one of the few medical conditions where patients’ actions can have a measurable impact on the outcome of their surgery.”

The DPEP is an online information hub that houses comprehensive resources for patient education. The knowledge and tools shared on the webpage are based on existing research on the management of perioperative neurocognitive disorders.

The webpage’s user-friendly design allows patients to learn about best practices for each stage of their surgical journey, including ways to optimize their well-being during their hospital stay, details on the symptoms of delirium, and recovery methods to promote brain health when they return home.

The DPEP also recognizes the importance of a support network and incorporates family, friends, and caregivers into the program's resources. By understanding how to support a patient's brain health, these loved ones can become active participants in the recovery process.

“The tool ensures that stakeholders know what they should do at each stage of the surgical journey. It incorporates a lot of the information from the hospital’s elder life program, like getting a good night’s sleep, exercising daily, doing brain teasers, and talking to their loved ones every day because these actions can help with their recovery. It’s going to be hard, but whatever you can do is important.”

Ultimately, Choi hopes the program will help reduce the frequency of delirium among high-risk surgical patients, leading to the implementation of an automatic screening process at the hospital for cognitive issues to flag high-risk patients.

“I hope to prove that there is a tangible benefit to letting people know that they’re considered high risk and then giving them the tools and resources to take their health into their own hands. Even if we can see a five per cent drop in the number of patients experiencing delirium after surgery, that means two or three patients per day at Sunnybrook will be spared. That’s an extremely positive outcome.”