Document Type
Article
Department
Anaesthesiology (East Africa)
Abstract
Severity of illness scores in the critical care context have evolved to serve multiple functions. These scores enable risk-adjusted outcomes to be benchmarked for the assessment of intensive care unit (ICU) performance, inform resource allocation, and enable the characterization of disease severity. Numerous illness severity scores have been developed to optimize calibration at the national level, but few studies have examined the international application of such scores.()
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the value of benchmarking outcomes across heterogeneous populations and across various health care systems. Severity of illness scores were widely used to describe trial populations, assess treatment effects and evaluate the quality of care during the pandemic. Similar use cases apply to other priorities for international critical care research and quality improvement, such as improving outcomes following traumatic injuries and expanding access to complex medical, surgical and obstetric care.(,) Therefore, this article argues that the development of an international illness severity score is an urgent priority for critical care research.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Critical Care Science
DOI
https://doi.org/10.62675/2965-2774.20250293
Recommended Citation
Tracy, A.,
Figueira Salluh, J. I.,
Buanes, E. A.,
Dongelmans, D. A.,
Finazz, S.,
Tirupakuzhi Vijayaraghavan, B. K.,
Lone, N.,
Pilcher, D.,
Reinikainen, M.,
Siika, W.
(2025). The case for an international severity of illness scoring system. Critical Care Science, 37(2025), 1-4.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_fhs_mc_anaesth/66
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
