I have two stories related to broadband and healthcare this week. First – a story of great telehealth in practice in Minnesota; then a story of how Ohio plans to become the world leader in medical research with 100 Gbps.
Earlier this week the Star Tribune ran an article on a virtual ICU programs – programs that allow healthcare professionals to remotely monitor and support critically ill patients to support efforts of on-site staff. The idea is that the remote monitor can be a highly specialized or skilled provider and extra set of eyes and expertise…
McQuillan, 30, is one of a team of doctors and nurses helping to transform the way the VA cares for patients in its intensive care units by tracking them remotely from a new Tele-ICU center in the Minneapolis hospital.
Ordinarily, nurses have their hands full trying to manage two critically ill patients at once. McQuillan can juggle 35, in six cities, without even leaving her desk. From a bank of computers in Minneapolis, McQuillan can tell if someone in the Iowa City VA is having trouble breathing, someone in Omaha has an irregular heartbeat, or someone in Spokane is going into kidney failure.
In the Twin Cities the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis (VA) started offering virtual ICU services last summer; they were the first in the area and they serve seven regional hospitals. The plan isn’t to replace existing staff, but to supplement them. Apparently the idea has been successful in other areas…
Already, some studies suggest virtual ICUs may save both lives and money. In Green Bay, Wis., Bellin Memorial Hospital saw a 34 percent drop in the death rate of ICU patients after it started working with a virtual ICU, said Erin Green, of Froedtert Health, which runs the program. From 2007 to 2008, it also cut the number of ICU patient days by 29 percent.
It’s heartening to see Minnesota take advantage of innovation that can save lives and save money. I’m hoping that the following story will help inspire Minnesota to want to do even more.
According to CivSource (and thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up)…
Ohio is launching the first ever state-led initiative to provide a statewide 100 Gigabits (Gbps) per second broadband network. The state wants to leverage its existing medical research and university network to bring companies and funding into the state in order to create jobs and grow the economy.
Apparently they will be investing about $10 million to upgrade their existing 10 Gbps network. The plan is to become the place for medical research and hopefully the place for medical research investment. There are opportunities for the public and private sector. So often I hear that we don’t have money. We need to come up with plans that don’t require investment – so I’m hopeful when I read stories from people who are investing now.
Howdy,
Do you have links to any of those studies about virtual ICUs and their impact on saving lives and money?
Craig,
Sorry for the delay – you caught me on the road. I was quoting from the original article above – but I was able to find a couple of research reports:
Virtual ICU case study: St. Mary’s Health Center. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Physician-Executive/234078425.html – it’s a case study, not broad research but focuses on a rural setting!
Get ready for the virtual ICU – an article from 2004, but it paints a detailed picture of what virtual ICU could bring http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=114162
Bringing Virtual Technology to the ICU – details from Sentara Healthcare, a seven-hospital system in Norfolk, Va., one of the first in the nation to install the Virtual ICU care model. (Also dated 2007) http://www.allbusiness.com/health-care/health-care-professionals-physicians-surgeons/16410598-1.html
Research Demonstrates Focused Tele-ICU Programs Improve Outcomes – this article highlights a couple of research reports at least one indicates that “Advanced ICU Care’s research shows that virtual ICU intensivists prevented 260 cases of these clots in at-risk patients.” http://www.icumedicine.com/01-18-11-sccm.html
And here are some citations – but not links to actual research:
Virtual ICU Making an Impact on Safety and Quality http://www.nursinglibrary.org/vhl/handle/10755/182848
Good-Better-Best: The virtual ICU and beyond https://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=1095476 – abstract and link to buy article. Doesn’t look like an exact fit
Impact of Telemedicine Intensive Care Unit Coverage on Patient Outcomes – http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/171/6/498 – “Conclusion Tele-ICU coverage is associated with lower ICU mortality and LOS but not with lower in-hospital mortality or hospital LOS.”
There are others – mostly I found then searching Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com for “virtual ICU” and virtual intensivists. Also there’s an interesting discussion on the topic (although appears dated) http://www.studentwebstuff.com/mis/showthread.php?t=6920
Thx! Ann