Telemedicine using stationary hard-wire audiovisual equipment or robotic systems in critical care: a brief review

Abstract

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. A shortage of critical care physicians in the United States has been widely recognized and reported (1). Most intensive care units (ICUs) do no not have a formally-trained intensivist in their staff despite compelling evidence that high-intensity intensivist staffing leads to better patient outcomes (1,2). Critical care telemedicine is one potential solution that has expanded rapidly since its inception in 2000 (3). In its simplest form, telemedicine leverages audiovisual technology and the electronic medical record to provide remote two-way communication between a physician and a patient. Current telemedicine models differ by the type of hardware facilitating remote audiovisual interaction, the location of the provider, and the type of patient-care service provided. We collectively have experience with several of these models and feel that future telemedicine programs will likely integrate the most advantageous aspects of each with an increasing role for telemedicine robotics. The dominant current model for providing Critical Care …

Keywords

• telemedicine
• audiovisual
• robot
• robotic
• critical care
• ICU
• EMR
• electronic medical record
• cost
• effectiveness