title: Tele-ICU: experience to date.
abstract: Tele-intensive care unit (ICU) is a care provided to critically ill patients by off-site clinicians using audio, video, and electronic links to leverage technical, informational, and clinical resources. Providing care includes the ability to detect patient's instability or laboratory abnormalities in real-time, collect additional clinical information from or about the patient, order diagnostic testing, make diagnoses, implement treatment, render other forms of intensive care such as managing life-support devices, and communicate with patients and bedside providers. This review summarizes how tele-ICU services are delivered, the alternative approaches that have been used, and summarizes published reports of its effects on patient-focused outcomes. Tele-ICU is thought to have great promise to support critically ill adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Clinical and the Population Health Research Program, University of Massachusetts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA. craig.lilly@umassmed.edu
authors.forename: Craig M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lilly
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*