Impact of Synchronous Telemedicine Models on Clinical Outcomes in Pediatric Acute Care Settings: A Systematic Review.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of synchronous telemedicine models on the clinical outcomes in pediatric acute care settings DATA SOURCES Citations from EBM Reviews MEDLINE EMBASE Global Health PubMed and CINAHL STUDY SELECTION We identified studies that evaluated the impact of synchronous telemedicine on clinical outcomes between January 2000 and April 2018 All studies involving acutely ill children in PICUs pediatric cardiac ICUs neonatal ICUs and pediatric emergency departments were included Publication inclusion criteria were study design participants characteristics technology type interventions settings outcome measures and languages DATA EXTRACTION Two authors independently screened each article for inclusion and extracted information including telecommunication method intervention characteristics sample characteristics and size outcomes and settings DATA SYNTHESIS Out of the 789 studies initially identified 24 were included The six main outcomes of interest published were quality of care hospital and standardized mortality rate transfer rate complications and illness severity change in medical management and length of stay The use of synchronous telemedicine results improved quality of care and resulted in a decrease in the transfer rate 31 87 5 four studies a shorter length of stay 8 2 vs 15 1 d six studies a change or reinforcement of the medical care plan a reduction in complications and illness severity and a low hospital and standardized mortality rate Overall the quality of the included studies was weak CONCLUSIONS Despite the broad recommendations found for using telemedicine in pediatric acute care settings high quality evidence of its impacts is still lacking Further robust studies are needed to better determine the clinical effectiveness and the associated impacts of telemedicine in pediatric acute care settings