Implications for practice and research

• ▪ Telemedicine applications are becoming more common for the delivery of specialist care, patient monitoring, education and support, though the uptake has been slow and fragmented.

• ▪ Telemedicine may have the potential to reduce mortality and length of stay (LOS) for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

• ▪ More controlled studies in telemedicine are required to determine clinical and cost-effectiveness.

Context

Telemedicine is gaining momentum as a potentially valuable method of delivering clinical expertise and sharing health-related information between locations. The value of telemedicine is likely to be greater in rural and remote regions, where specialists are in short supply or not present. Telephone advice is one of the more ubiquitous forms of telemedicine; however, the use of videoconferencing allows for real-time viewing of patients, medical equipment, monitors and x-rays – thus simulating an ‘in the room’ experience. In the context of critical care telemedicine, where …