The Techie site, Ars Technica (that’s “the art of technology” for you fellow latin buffs) recently published an article about bringing telemedicine to the ICU with mixed results on their site. I found this super interesting, as telemedicine is a practice getting more traction given the primary care shortage. For those of you unfamiliar with telemedicine, it is a lot like it sounds- physicians use the phone or the internet (mostly) to provide clinical care to patients and/or consult with other physicians. It also includes the use of satellite and video-conferencing equipment to conduct real-time consultations between medical specialists in different locations.
Telemedicine is particularly interesting to me within the context of primary care, however Ars Technica approached the topic in terms of intensive care medicine,
“At first glance, an ICU might not be the obvious choice for telemedicine, given its focus on intensive care, which implies lots of hands-on intervention for a wide range of ailments. But a large portion of the work involved in an ICU is a matter of monitoring patients for changes, which doesn't necessarily require direct intervention. And, in other ways, the ICU is a perfect fit for telemedicine. Training dedicated intensivists as a separate specialty has a limited history in the US, and there remains a critical shortage of these doctors. Meanwhile, studies indicate that dedicated intensivists provide improved outcomes to ICU patients. Telemedicine could potentially allow these limited specialists to monitor more patients (as well as patients who might not otherwise have access to them), making up for this shortage."
The article references a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association that suggests that telemedicine may bring some small benefits with subtile impact to the ICU, however Telemedicine an interesting concept that deserves more thought and attention as we move forward in a reformed health care system and continue searching for new innovative ideas to enhance quality and reduces costs.
