On one monitor, the doctor scrolled to a report of new symptoms developed in a 72-year-old patient admitted to ICU. On another, she summoned a graph of blood pressure readings from a woman struggling with chronic kidney disease. Finally the doctor, who is an "intensivist," or critical care specialist, clicked to a live image of an unconscious 59-year-old man in septic shock and zoomed close enough to check the dial on his ventilator. He verified the setting by an algorithm developed to improve survival rates and shorten ICU stays.
It is a picture of a busy tele -ICU, which is not a far-fetched idea even in a country like India. Like many expensive innovations in medicine, from robotic surgery and designer drugs to electronic medical records, tele-ICUs have shown their most stellar results in different part of the world. However, our part of the globe is yet to explore this new era…
