ArticleBMJ open quality2023
Process improvement using telemedicine consultation to prevent unnecessary interfacility transfers for low-severity blunt head trauma.
Article in BMJ open quality, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telemedicine Devices in Prehospital Trauma Care: A Scoping Review of Telemedical Actions, Clinical Utilities and Implementation Barriers.Journal of medical systems · 2026Article
- Crossing the blood-brain barrier: neurotrauma in disasters and resource-limited settings.Trauma surgery & acute care open · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveMild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) associated with intracranial haemorrhage are commonly transferred to tertiary care centres. Recent studies have shown that transfers for low-severity traumatic brain injuries may be unnecessary. Trauma systems can be overwhelmed by low acuity patients justifying standardisation of MTBI transfers. We sought to evaluate the impact of telemedicine services on mitigating unnecessary transfers for those presenting with low-severity blunt head trauma after sustaining a ground level fall (GLF).
methodA process improvement plan was developed by a task force of transfer centre (TC) administrators, emergency department physicians (EDP), trauma surgeons and neurosurgeons (NS) to facilitate the requesting EDP and the NS on-call to converse directly to mitigate unnecessary transfers. Consecutive retrospective chart review was performed on neurosurgical transfer requests between 1 January 2021 and 31 January 2022. A comparison of transfers preintervention and postintervention (1 January 2021 to 12 September 2021)/(13 September 2021 to 31 January 2022) was performed.
resultsThe TC received 1091 neurological-based transfer requests during the study period (preintervention group: 406 neurosurgical requests; postintervention group: 353 neurosurgical requests). After consultation with the NS on-call, the number of MTBI patients remaining at their respective ED's with no neurological degradation more than doubled from 15 in the preintervention group to 37 in the postintervention group.
conclusionTC-mediated telemedicine conversations between the NS and the referring EDP can prevent unnecessary transfers for stable MTBI patients sustaining a GLF if needed. Outlying EDPs should be educated on this process to increase efficacy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.