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
. 2020 Dec 31;9(12):e19695.
doi: 10.2196/19695.

Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Camille Guinemer #  1 , Martin Boeker  2 , Bjoern Weiss  1 , Daniel Fuerstenau  3   4   5 , Felix Balzer  1 , Akira-Sebastian Poncette  1   5
Affiliations

Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Camille Guinemer et al. JMIR Res Protoc. .

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine has been deployed to address issues in intensive care delivery, as well as to improve outcome and quality of care. Implementation of this technology has been characterized by high variability. Tele-intensive care unit (ICU) interventions involve the combination of multiple technological and organizational components, as well as interconnections of key stakeholders inside the hospital organization. The extensive literature on the benefits of tele-ICUs has been characterized as heterogeneous. On one hand, positive clinical and economical outcomes have been shown in multiple studies. On the other hand, no tangible benefits could be detected in several cases. This could be due to the diverse forms of organizations and the fact that tele-ICU interventions are complex to evaluate. The implementation context of tele-ICUs has been shown to play an important role in the success of the technology. The benefits derived from tele-ICUs depend on the organization where it is deployed and how the telemedicine systems are applied. There is therefore value in analyzing the benefits of tele-ICUs in relation to the characteristics of the organization where it is deployed. To date, research on the topic has not provided a comprehensive overview of literature taking both the technology setup and implementation context into account.

Objective: We present a protocol for a scoping review of the literature on telemedicine in the ICU and its benefits in intensive care. The purpose of this review is to map out evidence about telemedicine in critical care in light of the implementation context. This review could represent a valuable contribution to support the development of tele-ICU technologies and offer perspectives on possible configurations, based on the implementation context and use case.

Methods: We have followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and the recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. The scoping review and subsequent systematic review will be completed by spring 2021.

Results: The preliminary search has been conducted. After removing all duplicates, we found 2530 results. The review can now be advanced to the next steps of the methodology, including literature database queries with appropriate keywords, retrieval of the results in a reference management tool, and screening of titles and abstracts.

Conclusions: The results of the search indicate that there is sufficient literature to complete the scoping review. Upon completion, the scoping review will provide a map of existing evidence on tele-ICU systems given the implementation context. Findings of this research could be used by researchers, clinicians, and implementation teams as they determine the appropriate setup of new or existing tele-ICU systems. The need for future research contributions and systematic reviews will be identified.

International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/19695.

Keywords: critical care; implementation; intensive care; intensive care unit; scoping review; tele-ICU; telemedicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: BW received personal fees for consultancy and speaking from ORION Pharma Ltd, outside the submitted work. The other authors have no conflicts to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Literature search flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Scoping Review.
    Guinemer C, Boeker M, Fürstenau D, Poncette AS, Weiss B, Mörgeli R, Balzer F. Guinemer C, et al. J Med Internet Res. 2021 Nov 3;23(11):e32264. doi: 10.2196/32264. J Med Internet Res. 2021. PMID: 34730547 Free PMC article.

References

    1. Caples SM. Intensive Care Unit Telemedicine Care Models. Crit Care Clin. 2019 Jul 15;35(3):479–482. doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2019.02.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Becker C, Frishman WH, Scurlock C. Telemedicine and Tele-ICU: The Evolution and Differentiation of a New Medical Field. Am J Med. 2016 Dec 15;129(12):e333–e334. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.05.045. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Davis TM, Barden C, Dean S, Gavish A, Goliash I, Goran S, Graley A, Herr P, Jackson W, Loo E, Marcin JP, Morris JM, Morledge DE, Olff C, Rincon T, Rogers S, Rogove H, Rufo R, Thomas E, Zubrow MT, Krupinski EA, Bernard J. American Telemedicine Association Guidelines for TeleICU Operations. Telemed J E Health. 2016 Dec 11;22(12):971–980. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2016.0065. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marschall U, Spies C. Das Projekt Enhanced Recovery after Intensive Care – ERIC. GuS. 2017 Jul 1;71(1):32–34. doi: 10.5771/1611-5821-2017-1-32. - DOI
    1. Marshall JC, Bosco L, Adhikari NK, Connolly B, Diaz JV, Dorman T, Fowler RA, Meyfroidt G, Nakagawa S, Pelosi P, Vincent J, Vollman K, Zimmerman J. What is an intensive care unit? A report of the task force of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine. J Crit Care. 2017 Feb 01;37:270–276. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2016.07.015. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources