Supervising trauma life support by telemedicine

The resuscitation room in a community hospital was linked with a main hospital accident and emergency department using telemedicine equipment working at 384 kbit/s. Fifteen simulated casualties replicated the ‘moulage’ scenarios in the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course Manual of the American College of Surgeons. Each of the 15 scenarios was broken down into three main parts: the primary survey, resuscitation and the secondary survey. While a physician in the community hospital undertook each task, a senior doctor in the accident and emergency department recorded his degree of confidence in the supervision of the task on a five-point scale. There were features of the management which the supervisor found difficult, mainly related to the camera view and the use of a proxy examiner. However, supervising major trauma management by telemedicine was feasible. The average scores were mostly above 3 and often above 4 in the assessment of the primary survey and the resuscitation. The average scores were mostly above 3 for the secondary survey but were less often above 4 than for the primary survey and the resuscitation. Trials of remote trauma management with real patients appear to be justified.