[Telemedicine in the ICU - the possibilities and limitations of an innovation]

Abstract

Background: Intensive care medicine is challenged by demographic changes and an increasing number of patient combined with existing shortage of doctors. Telemedicine is a promising approach to ensure patient care in the coming years. Due to a shortage of intensive care physicians in the USA, comprehensive telemedicine coverage has already been established. To date, 11 % of all hospitals are supported by a telemedicine center. The beneficial impact in terms of quality of care, patient safety and economic factors has been confirmed in numerous multicenter studies.

Results: In the largest multicenter study by Lilly et al., including 107,432 critically ill patients in the intervention group, telemedicine interventions led to a reduced ICU and hospital mortality. In addition, tele-consulting significantly reduced the ICU- and hospital length of stay. These findings were further supported by following studies and metaanalysis, which confirmed these results. The incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-associated infections was significantly reduced, when compared to the preintervention group. Furthermore, patient safety and treatment outcomes were improved by increased guideline adherence. Last, the telemedicine intervention significantly decreased the overall treatment costs. These positive results were reproducible even in larger and academic hospitals. At the same time it should be pointed out that a transfer to other health care systems should be considered cautiously in the context of different local infrastructure and culture. Finally, it has to be investigated to what extent the results can be transferred to the health-care situation in Germany.

Conclusion: Previous data demonstrated that telemedical support can improve the outcome in critically ill patients, both during hospitalization as well as in the long-term result until the discharge home. Telemedicine is neither a magic bullet nor a replacement for a physician. Instead it is a new type of medical cooperation to further improve the outcomes of critically ill patients.

Keywords: Benefit assessment; Data protection; Demographic change; Medical cooperation; Quality improvement; Telemedicine in ICU’s.