Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association
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Observational Study
Telemedicine-Assisted Intubation in Rural Emergency Departments: A National Emergency Airway Registry Study.
Intubation in rural emergency departments (EDs) is a high-risk procedure, often with little or no specialty support. Rural EDs are utilizing real-time telemedicine links, connecting providers to an ED physician who may provide clinical guidance. ⋯ Telemedicine-supported endotracheal intubation performed in rural hospitals is feasible, with good success rates. Future research is required to better define the impact of telemedicine providers on emergency airway management.
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We developed and beta-tested a patient-centered medication management application, PresRx optical character recognition (OCR), a mobile health (m-health) tool that auto-populates drug name and dosing instructions directly from patients' medication labels by OCR. ⋯ Our medication management application PresRx OCR is innovative, acceptable for patient use, and accurately tracks medication adherence.
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Risk stratification with the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) or electronic cardiac arrest trigger (eCART) has been utilized with ward patients to preemptively identify high-risk patients who might benefit from enhanced monitoring, including early intensive care unit (ICU) transfer. In-hospital mortality from cardiac arrest is ∼80%, making preventative interventions an important focus area. ICUs have lower patient to nurse ratios than wards, resulting in less emphasis on the development of ICU early warning systems. ⋯ Earlier identification and treatment of organ failure in the ICU improve outcomes and the EWD can serve as a safety measure for both at-risk in-house patients and also extend critical care expertise through telemedicine to smaller hospitals.