The effect of telemedicine in critically ill patients: systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 1 Characteristics of the included studies

Source	ICUs/hospitals, n	Patients^a(total/pre/post), n	Age (years)		Sex (% male)		Illness severity
			Control	Telemedicine	Control	Telemedicine	Control	Telemedicine
Rosenfeld et al. 2000 [10]	1/1	628/227/201	61	61	56	57	APACHE III 37	APACHE III 38
Breslow et al. 2004 [8]	2/1	2,140/1,396/744	61	60	56	50	APACHE III APS 39	APACHE III APS 38
Marcin et al. 2004 [27]	1/1	296/249/47	5.5	5.3	NR	NR	PRISM III 7.5	PRISM III 9.6
Kohl et al. 2007 [30]	1/1	2,811/189/2,622	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Vespa et al. 2007 [28]	1/1	1,218/578/640	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Norman et al. 2009 [31]	1/1	1,275/356/919	NR	NR	NR	NR	APACHE IV 57	APACHE IV 53
Thomas et al. 2009 [9]	6/5	4,142/2,034/2,108	60	59	51	53	SAPS II 35	SAPS II 34
McCambridge et al. 2010 [11]	3/1	1,913/954/959	65	64	50	50	APACHE IV APS 57	APACHE IV APS 58
Morrison et al. 2010 [12]	4/2	4,088/1,371/2,717	64	65	56	52	APACHE III 49	APACHE III 48
Lilly et al. 2011 [29]	7/1	6,290/1,529/4,761	62	64	57	57	APACHE III 45	APACHE III 58
Willmitch et al. 2012 [32]	10/5	24,656/6,504/18,152	NR	NR	NR	NR	CMI 2.68	CMI 2.77

All studies were conducted in the United States. Of the 49,457 patients enrolled, 33,870 were enrolled in the telemedicine arm. Continuous data are expressed as mean (SD). ^aThe number of patients in each category corresponds to the number used in the meta-analysis. APACHE, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation; APS, Acute Physiology Score; CMI, Case Mix Index; ICU, intensive care unit; ISS, Injury Severity Score; NR, not reported; PRISM, Pediatric Risk of Mortality Score; SAPS, Simplified Acute Physiology Score.

ISSN: 1364-8535