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
. 2021;9(3):65-71.
doi: 10.1007/s40124-021-00242-z. Epub 2021 Jul 12.

Telemedicine in Pediatric Intensive Care Units: Perspectives From a Brazilian Experience

Vanessa Cristina Jacovas  1 , Maria Eulália Vinadé Chagas  1 , Hilda Maria Rodrigues Moleda Constant  1 , Suelen Stihl Alves  1 , João Ronaldo Mafalda Krauzer  2 , Luciano Remião Guerra  1 , Aristóteles de Almeida Pires  1 , Luciane Gomes da Cunha  1 , Maria Cristina Cotta Matte  1 , Taís de Campos Moreira  1 , Felipe Cezar Cabral  1
Affiliations
Review

Telemedicine in Pediatric Intensive Care Units: Perspectives From a Brazilian Experience

Vanessa Cristina Jacovas et al. Curr Pediatr Rep. 2021.

Abstract

Purpose of review: To present the implementation of a telemedicine project (TeleICU) in pediatric intensive care units (ICU) throughout different Brazilian regions.

Recent findings: Although telemedicine in pediatric ICUs has shown evidence of benefit in numerous studies with potential to 18 mitigate existing disparities, in Brazil, its use is still under development. Brazil has several opportunities for implementing this resource since, according to the National Registry of Healthcare 20 Establishments (NRHE), there is a discrepancy in the density of pediatric intensive care physicians per patient and the availability 21 of pediatric ICU beds per number of inhabitants.

Summary: Health technologies are being widely used to fill gaps in the healthcare system. Telemedicine has been an important tool to meet demands in intensive care units, especially the demand for specialized assistance. TeleICU is a Brazilian model of telemedicine that performs multidisciplinary telerounds in remote pediatric ICUs and develops continuing education activities for the healthcare teams. The project aims to systematize and to qualify care, as well as to reduce risks for patients admitted to pediatric ICUs engaged in the project. Preliminary results have demonstrated a positive impact regarding this approach, providing medical care to 6640 inpatients-day in two Brazilian pediatric ICUs, for 616 patients during 946 daily telerounds.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40124-021-00242-z.

Keywords: Pediatric intensive care unit; Pediatrics and critical care; Telemedicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A Graphic representation of the density of pediatric physicians in Brazil (number of pediatric physicians/total population times 10,000; B Graphic representation of the density of pediatric ICU beds in Brazil (number of available beds/total population times 100,000) according to federative unit (source: adapted from the National Registry of Healthcare Establishments)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Items assessed in each domain considered in the project’s implementation visits. Red cells represent a negative score (the worse the assessment, the greater the weight). Green cells represent a positive score (the better the assessment, the better the scores). Blue cells represent negative scores towards the extreme evaluations (very good and inadequate) and positive scores in regular evaluations
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
A Photo of the telemedicine station located in the command center (Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, RS) and B telemedicine station and the intensive care pediatric physicians. The remote center is equipped with a telemedicine cart (C), which is located by the team by the bedside in order to allow patients’ assessments (D)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Udeh C, Udeh B, Rahman N, Canfield C, Campbell J, Hata JS. Telemedicine/virtual ICU: where are we and where are we going? Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2018;14(2):126–133. doi: 10.14797/mdcj-14-2-126. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marcin JP. Telemedicine in the pediatric intensive care unit. Pediatr Clin N Am. 2013;60(3):581–592. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2013.02.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marcin JP, Nesbitt TS, Kallas HJ, Struve SN, Traugott CA, Dimand RJ. Use of telemedicine to provide pediatric critical care inpatient consultations to underserved rural Northern California. J Pediatr. 2004;144(3):375–380. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2003.12.017. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dayal P, Hojman NM, Kissee JL, Evans J, Natale JE, Huang Y, Litman RL, Nesbitt TS, Marcin JP. Impact of telemedicine on severity of illness and outcomes among children transferred from referring emergency departments to a children’s hospital PICU. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2016;17(6):516–521. doi: 10.1097/PCC.0000000000000761. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nadar M, Jouvet P, Tucci M, Toledano B, Cyr M, Sicotte C. The implementation of a synchronous telemedicine platform linking off-site pediatric intensivists and on-site fellows in a pediatric intensive care unit: a feasibility study. Int J Med Inform. 2019;129:219–225. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.06.009. - DOI - PubMed