Funding boost for saliva test project to help care homes identify delirium risk

A Teesside University researcher is at the heart of a groundbreaking initiative to improve the lives of people living with dementia, following a funding award for a project developing a simple saliva test to help predict delirium risk in care homes.

The innovative saliva test, which could help care homes to identify residents at risk of delirium before symptoms develop, is co-led by Dr Ahmad Khundakar, working with Salvivo Limited, a health technology company based in Newcastle. The funding has been awarded through the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Funding At the Speed of Translation (FAST) programme, which supports real-world integration of preventive technologies into the workflow of community care settings.

Delirium, a sudden and distressing change in a person’s mental state, affects up to half of care home residents living with dementia, causing falls, hospital admissions, and faster decline in thinking and memory.

Dehydration is a major, preventable cause of delirium, is a common and distressing condition affecting people living with dementia. Until now, care home staff have had no simple way of reliably monitoring a resident’s hydration status.

Salvivo and Dr Khundakar are collaborating on the project with Stockton Council and care home staff, residents, and families within the Teesside Dementia Research Partnership Network (DRPN).

Co-applicant Dr Khundakar, Head of Integrated Science in Teesside University’s School of Health & Life Sciences, said: “We are delighted to collaborate on this important and timely project to explore whether improved hydration monitoring could help identify delirium risk in care home residents with dementia.

“This is a ‘device for performance study’ to understand whether weekly hydration checks are practical and acceptable in care home settings. We will combine hydration readings with a simple delirium check, known as the 4AT, and collect saliva samples to assess the practical aspects of sample handling and storage for future research.”

FishburneTabs®OH, Salvivo’s paper-based hydration indicator, is placed on the tongue for a few seconds and gives a rapid reading of oral hydration levels. The saliva collected during the test dries immediately and can be stored for future research. Early use in care homes has shown the test to be simple and well received by care staff, residents, and managers alike.

This project will enable Salvivo to work with partners to generate further evidence to support larger studies, build the health economic case, and advance regulatory submissions.

Dr Dale Athey, CEO of Salvivo, said: “This project is an important next step for Salvivo. It lets us work alongside outstanding research partners at Teesside University to answer a question that genuinely matters to care homes, to ask could something as simple as a daily hydration check help protect residents from delirium?

“It also builds directly on the relationships we have developed with care homes and the Health Innovation Network across the North East and Cumbria, and gives us the evidence base we need as we prepare FishburneTabsTM for wider adoption across the NHS and social care.”

Professor Philip Preshaw, Clinical Director at Salvivo and Lead Investigator, said: “This research supports the government’s goal of shifting healthcare from hospitals to communities, and from treatment to prevention, and will play a key role in developing our innovative platform.”

This funding represents a significant boost to Salvivo’s goal of transforming oral health monitoring through simple, sustainable, and accessible tools for early risk identification and prevention of systemic disease, improving lives while reducing healthcare costs.