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
. 2021 Nov 3;23(11):e32264.
doi: 10.2196/32264.

Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Scoping Review

Camille Guinemer  1 , Martin Boeker  2 , Daniel Fürstenau  1   3 , Akira-Sebastian Poncette  1 , Björn Weiss  4 , Rudolf Mörgeli  4 , Felix Balzer  1
Affiliations

Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Scoping Review

Camille Guinemer et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The role of telemedicine in intensive care has been increasing steadily. Tele-intensive care unit (ICU) interventions are varied and can be used in different levels of treatment, often with direct implications for the intensive care processes. Although a substantial body of primary and secondary literature has been published on the topic, there is a need for broadening the understanding of the organizational factors influencing the effectiveness of telemedical interventions in the ICU.

Objective: This scoping review aims to provide a map of existing evidence on tele-ICU interventions, focusing on the analysis of the implementation context and identifying areas for further technological research.

Methods: A research protocol outlining the method has been published in JMIR Research Protocols. This review follows the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews). A core research team was assembled to provide feedback and discuss findings.

Results: A total of 3019 results were retrieved. After screening, 25 studies were included in the final analysis. We were able to characterize the context of tele-ICU studies and identify three use cases for tele-ICU interventions. The first use case is extending coverage, which describes interventions aimed at extending the availability of intensive care capabilities. The second use case is improving compliance, which includes interventions targeted at improving patient safety, intensive care best practices, and quality of care. The third use case, facilitating transfer, describes telemedicine interventions targeted toward the management of patient transfers to or from the ICU.

Conclusions: The benefits of tele-ICU interventions have been well documented for centralized systems aimed at extending critical care capabilities in a community setting and improving care compliance in tertiary hospitals. No strong evidence has been found on the reduction of patient transfers following tele-ICU intervention.

International registered report identifier (irrid): RR2-10.2196/19695.

Keywords: care compliance; critical care; digital health; health care system; health technology; hospital; implementation; intensive care unit; review; tele-ICU; telehealth; telemedicine; tertiary hospitals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flowchart. PICO: Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Clustering system configurations.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Evidence map [22-46]. ICU: intensive care unit; LOS: length of stay.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Caples SM. Intensive care unit telemedicine care models. Crit Care Clin. 2019 Jul;35(3):479–482. doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2019.02.004.S0749-0704(19)30017-X - 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;129(12):e333–e334. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.05.045.S0002-9343(16)30839-7 - 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;22(12):971–980. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2016.0065. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vranas KC, Slatore CG, Kerlin MP. Telemedicine coverage of intensive care units: a narrative review. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2018 Nov;15(11):1256–1264. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.201804-225CME. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/30382786 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Binder WJ, Cook JL, Gramze N, Airhart S. Telemedicine in the intensive care unit: improved access to care at what cost? Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am. 2018 Jun;30(2):289–296. doi: 10.1016/j.cnc.2018.02.010.S0899-5885(18)30012-1 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types