TURKISH JOURNAL OF INTENSIVE CARE-TURK YOGUN BAKIM DERGISI, cilt.19, sa.2, ss.54-61, 2021 (ESCI)
Intensive care treatment needs and costs are expected to increase with the ageing population in our country and the world. Tele-intensive care unit (Tele-ICU) applications can provide an alternative solution to treat and follow up critical patients remotely. It can help use existing resources efficiently. With the Tele-ICU program, intensive care specialists will reach all intensive care beds in the country without restrictions. They will evaluate the patients' situations with all data from electronic recording systems. However, problems with some legal regulations or terms of job descriptions, deterioration of patient-doctor, doctor-patient's relative relationships, or some infrastructure deficiencies when using the Tele-ICU system could override the potential benefit of the new solution strategy. This review was written to inform about Tele-ICU, draw attention to opportunities, shortcomings, and limitations if Tele-ICU is applied in our country, and ensure that the necessary steps are taken to resolve these deficiencies.