Aachen: Europe’s largest telemedicine study shows: digitally networked healthcare works, is effective and helps

Telemedicine enables direct interaction around the clock over long distances between intensive care physicians or infectious disease experts and medical teams caring for patients in hospitals or doctors’ offices without direct access to these experts. Teleconsultations between experts increase the quality of treatment and thus create added value for patients. As the study once again demonstrates: TELnet@NRW was able to significantly and clinically highly relevant improve the quality of treatment. In the inpatient area, for example, telemedical support increased the chance of guideline-compliant treatment of bloodstream infections with Staphylococcus Aureus by a factor of 4.0. The treatment of life-threatening clinical pictures such as severe sepsis and septic shock was also positively influenced. Here, the chance of a guideline-compliant therapy could be increased by a factor of 6.8. In the outpatient setting, telemedicine intervention was very effective in reducing incorrect antibiotic administration for common uncomplicated acute upper respiratory infections. respiratory tract infections very effectively. A 34.3% increase in the chance of guideline-appropriate treatment was achieved. For asymptomatic bacteriuria, the chance of guideline-appropriate treatment was also increased by a factor of 9.3. With regard to secondary outcomes, the proportion of patients with acute respiratory failure treated in a lung-protective manner was significantly increased. Adherence to international guideline recommendations, such as the sepsis bundles of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, was also significantly increased. A non-significant reduction in sepsis mortality from 28.8 percent to 23.8 percent was observed.