CAP-D pilot — CAP-D pilot precursor

What this tool is and how to interpret its evidence

The CAP-D pilot was the preliminary observational assessment from which the Cornell Assessment of Pediatric Delirium was developed. Silver and colleagues designed the early form for rapid observation of critically ill children and reported encouraging diagnostic performance in a development sample. Subsequent refinement produced the eight-item CAPD and a larger validation study covering a broad paediatric age range.

The pilot therefore has historical and methodological value: it shows how the team moved from an initial set of observable behaviours to the better-known CAPD. It is not a competing current instrument that clinicians need to choose separately from CAPD. Counting both records as independent tools exaggerates the size of the paediatric evidence base and obscures the version history.

The existing URL can remain as a precursor page linked prominently to the final CAPD record. The page should identify the population, observational purpose, development status and primary paper, then direct clinical users to the validated current version. Exact pilot item wording is unnecessary. Performance reported in the preliminary study should be labelled development-cohort evidence and should not be used as the headline accuracy of the final CAPD. The record should be excluded from the independent core-family total while remaining visible in the family history and timeline.