An Intensive Care Specific Electronic Medical Record: Is There Transparency?

Abstract

Intensive care units (ICUs) are high-intensity patient care locations, and consequently contribute both to medical costs and errors. Computerization of order and documentation systems is one way to reduce both. One such solution is telemedicine based intensive care (eICUreg) whereby remote consultation is combined with intelligent data analysis. There are a number of technical and human factor elements that must be considered in deploying an eICUreg. Technical challenges include system interfaces, equipment choice, and integration of the electronic medical record with the pre-existing record. Human factor challenges consist of competing internal interests, haphazard approaches with no common workflow, and selective adoption of the technology. At a minimum, there is a triad of barriers that prevent fluid interoperability between systems. Those barriers comprise of the complexities in the clinical paradigm, technical innovation, and human factor best practices which industry developers need to be innately aware of.