Remote critical care consultation: telehealth projection of clinical specialty expertise.
Remote critical care consultations have been employed between the Naval Hospital in Guam and the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, a distance of 5300 km. During a 10-week study period there were physician-physician daily consultation rounds for patients in the intensive care unit at the Naval Hospital. Physiological data, video-images and sound were transmitted via a 768 kbit/s frame relay connection, albeit with a 1-3 s delay. During the study there were 87 consultations concerning 25 patients. Preliminary results showed that a broad range of critical care patients could be managed effectively through daily remote critical care consultation. Broader implementation of this strategy may represent a method of making critical care expertise available to front-line military health-care facilities and to remote civilian facilities with limited critical care expertise.
Berg
Benjamin W
BW
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii 96859-5000, USA. benjamin.berg@haw.tamc.amedd.army.mil
Vincent
Dale S
DS
Hudson
Donald A
DA
D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006141:Guam; D006254:Hawaii; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D006772:Hospitals, Military; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*