Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: A Luxury or Necessity?

The advent of telemedicine programs and their utilization in intensive care units (ICU), started in the 1970s, was initially designed to enhance the ability of local providers by simple verbal or video consultation with an ICU expert. Over the course of years with evolution of clinical informatics and connectivity, the idea has grown to the contemporary Tele-ICU practices, which not only provide expert opinion to the local providers but also offer a wide range of services, including monitoring, supervisions, communications with patients, families, and local providers of many disciplines, active resuscitation and stabilization, optimization, and deescalation processes for critically ill patients in shock, and additional services, including Tele-pharmacy, Tele-dialysis, Tele-stroke, and so forth.
Source: Critical Care Clinics - Category: Intensive Care Authors: Tags: Preface Source Type: research