Online tool estimates death and end-of-life care requirements for elderly individuals

The publication of a new tool, titled "Risk Evaluation for Support: Predictions for Elder-Life in the Community Tool (RESPECT)", aims to help predict the death of community-dwelling older adults within 6 months. This groundbreaking research was published on July 5, 2021, in the prestigious journal CMAJ Open.

Dr. Amy Hsu, an investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute, affiliate investigator at The Ottawa Hospital, and faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa, led the development of the RESPECT calculator. Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, a physician-scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and ICES, and investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute, was also instrumental in the project.

Declines in a person's ability to carry out activities of daily living are stronger predictors of 6-month mortality than the diseases that a person has. The RESPECT calculator takes this into account, providing a valuable tool for physicians, home care staff, and palliative care professionals.

The RESPECT calculator is based on data from over 491,000 older adults who used home care between 2007 and 2013. It has been designed with patients and their care partners in mind and has been piloted in community settings in Ontario.

Knowing how long a person has to live is essential in making informed decisions about what treatments they should get and where they should get them. As a person gets closer to death, the balance shifts from having curative care as the primary goal, to care that maximizes a person's quality of remaining life. The RESPECT calculator can help families and their loved ones plan for end-of-life care, such as planning when to take a leave of absence from work or decide when to take the last family vacation together.

The RESPECT calculator can be found at https://www.respect.projectbiglife.ca/ (password: pbldemo01). As of now, there are no relevant search results detailing the current status of the dissemination and availability of the RESPECT tool in Germany as of September 2025.

The DOI for the publication is 10.1503/cmaj.200022. The RESPECT tool was published in a scientific journal, marking a significant step forward in end-of-life care for community-dwelling older adults.