NCT04591873

Using Telemedicine to Optimize Teamwork and Infection Control of Critical and Highly-infectious Patients in an Emergency Department

Completed Last updated 17 May 2023

What this trial tests

trial testing telemedicine in Critical Illness in 74 participants. Completed in 31 July 2021.

Timeline

3 February 2021

Primary endpoint
31 July 2021

31 July 2021

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	National Taiwan University Hospital
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	74
Start date	3 February 2021
Primary completion	31 July 2021
Estimated completion	31 July 2021
Sites	1 location across Taiwan

Drugs / interventions tested

• telemedicine
• traditional communication tools

Conditions studied

• Critical Illness — all drugs for Critical Illness →
• Infections, Respiratory — all drugs for Infections, Respiratory →
• Emergency Service, Hospital — all drugs for Emergency Service, Hospital →
• Telemedicine — all drugs for Telemedicine →

Sponsor

National Taiwan University Hospital

Who can join

Adults 20 to 99, any sex, with Critical Illness or Infections, Respiratory. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Since 2000, various emerging infectious diseases have repeatedly caused serious impact on the health of the global population and the healthcare systems. With the growing international transportation and improving accessibility of the healthcare systems, hospitals have been inevitably the first sentinels dealing with emerging infectious diseases. The biological disasters, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korean in 2015, and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak this year, challenged our vulnerable healthcare systems and caused great loss of lives.

Regarding the ongoing global epidemics and possible community outbreaks of the COVID-19, the management of biological disasters for an overcrowded emergency department should be planned. In the early 2020, the emergency department used a double-triage and telemedicine method to treat non-critical patient with suspected COVID-19. This application reduced the exposure time of the first responders and reserve adequate interview quality. However, for the critical patients treated in the isolated resuscitation rooms, the unique environment limited the teamwork and communication for the resuscitation team. These factors might led to poorer quality of critical care.

The investigators designed a telemedicine-teamwork model, which connected the isolation room, prepare room and nursing station by an video-conferencing system in the emergency department. This model try to break the barriers of space between the rooms and facilitate the teamwork communications between each unit. Besides, by providing a more efficient workflow, this model could lower the total exposure time for all workers in the contaminated area. This study was conducted to evaluate the benefits of the telemedicine-teamwork model and provide a practical, safe and effective alternative to critical care of the patients with suspected highly infectious diseases.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Using a telemedicine-assisted airway model to improve the communication and teamwork of tracheal intubation during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
   Lin CH, Lin HY, Wu SN, Tseng WP, et al · · 2024 · PMID 36066025 · DOI 10.1177/1357633x221124175