Care From Afar

Over time, the doctors who watch the monitors may move even farther away. Military doctors in Hawaii are already monitoring military patients in South Korea and Guam. Some health-care analysts are looking at the possibility of setting up eICU monitors in Bangalore and other foreign sites where doctors are well trained but much lower paid than in the United States.

Winning patients over to that idea might take a while. Today most of the intensivists who do shifts watching eICU monitors are still doing floor rounds on other days. So even in a digital age, the need for good bedside manners remains.

© 2007