Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Jul 5:7:29.
doi: 10.1186/s12245-014-0029-0. eCollection 2014.

Telemedicine in pre-hospital care: a review of telemedicine applications in the pre-hospital environment

Ahjoku Amadi-Obi  1 , Peadar Gilligan  2 , Niall Owens  3 , Cathal O'Donnell  4
Affiliations
Review

Telemedicine in pre-hospital care: a review of telemedicine applications in the pre-hospital environment

Ahjoku Amadi-Obi et al. Int J Emerg Med. .

Abstract

The right person in the right place and at the right time is not always possible; telemedicine offers the potential to give audio and visual access to the appropriate clinician for patients. Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) in the area of video-to-video communication have led to growth in telemedicine applications in recent years. For these advances to be properly integrated into healthcare delivery, a regulatory framework, supported by definitive high-quality research, should be developed. Telemedicine is well suited to extending the reach of specialist services particularly in the pre-hospital care of acute emergencies where treatment delays may affect clinical outcome. The exponential growth in research and development in telemedicine has led to improvements in clinical outcomes in emergency medical care. This review is part of the LiveCity project to examine the history and existing applications of telemedicine in the pre-hospital environment. A search of electronic databases including Medline, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), Cochrane, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) for relevant papers was performed. All studies addressing the use of telemedicine in emergency medical or pre-hospital care setting were included. Out of a total of 1,279 articles reviewed, 39 met the inclusion criteria and were critically analysed. A majority of the studies were on stroke management. The studies suggested that overall, telemedicine had a positive impact on emergency medical care. It improved the pre-hospital diagnosis of stroke and myocardial infarction and enhanced the supervision of delivery of tissue thromboplasminogen activator in acute ischaemic stroke. Telemedicine presents an opportunity to enhance patient management. There are as yet few definitive studies that have demonstrated whether it had an effect on clinical outcome.

Keywords: Emergency medical services; Emergency medicine; Mobile health; Pre-hospital care; Telecare; Telehealth; Telemedicine; Telestroke; Teletrauma; eHealth.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Craig J, Patterson V. Introduction to the practice of telemedicine. J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11(1):3–9. doi: 10.1258/1357633053430494. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hjelm NM, Julius HW. Centenary of tele-electrocardiography and telephonocardiography. J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11(7):336–338. doi: 10.1258/135763305774472088. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Murphy RL, Bird KT. Telediagnosis: a new community health resource. Observations on the feasibility of telediagnosis based on 1000 patient transactions. Am J Public Health. 1974;64(2):113–119. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.64.2.113. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zundel KM. Telemedicine: history, applications, and impact on librarianship. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1996;84(1):71–79. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Freiburger G, Holcomb M, Piper D. The STARPAHC collection: part of an archive of the history of telemedicine. J Telemed Telecare. 2007;13(5):221–223. doi: 10.1258/135763307781458949. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources