Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association
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Close, multidisciplinary collaboration with burn experts is the essential strategy to achieve the best functional and esthetic outcomes in burn wound treatment. Management of minor burn injuries, where no specialized care is available, might be challenging. One concept to achieve a fast and timely result is the application of telemedicine. The objective of this study was to assess and develop a simple telemedicine protocol, which can be applied globally. ⋯ Implementation of a telemedicine protocol allows for easy access to burn consultations, helps multidisciplinary collaboration, eases follow-ups, and shortens specialists' consult wait times. Real-time evaluation provides fast and flexible treatment, without long distance travels, for patients and their families. Telemedicine increases the frequency of follow-up, contributes to the esthetic outcome, and together with improved cost-effectiveness is beneficial for both the patient and healthcare system.
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Pediatric transport teams rely on communication to report patient data to medical command officers, who create care plans and determine disposition. Common destinations are the emergency department (ED), pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), or regular inpatient care area (RIPCA). Telephone report does not result in complete understanding of the patient's condition. Further workup in the ED is often required. Telemedicine allows the patient to be directly seen; parents to be interviewed; and laboratory studies, radiographs, and vital signs to be reviewed. We hypothesized that telemedicine would improve understanding of the patient and result in more accurate disposition. ⋯ Telemedicine use in transported pediatric patients can positively alter disposition patterns.