ArticleBulletin of the World Health Organization2025
Peer-to-peer tele-consultative services for critical care, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, United Republic of Tanzania.
Article in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Revolutionising healthcare access: student-led clinics as catalysts for change in an underserved urban community in Karachi, Pakistan.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Policy analysis and expert consultation on cross-border telehealth services.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Environmentally sustainable anaesthesia: a cross-sectional survey of anesthesiologists in teaching hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan.BMC anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Telemedicine in Afghanistan: Implementation, Outcomes, and Future Directions in a Resource-Constrained Setting.Cureus · 2025Review
- Harnessing digital health to achieve equitable and efficient health systems.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Objective: To develop a tele-intensive care service providing peer-to-peer teleconsultation for physicians in remote and resource-constrained health-care settings for treatment of critically ill patients, and to evaluate the outcomes of the service. Methods: The Aga Khan University started the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tele-intensive care unit in 2020. A central command centre used two-way audiovisual technology to connect experienced intensive care specialists to clinical teams in remote hospital settings. The service, always available, used messaging applications and telephone calls. Coverage was later extended to other medical, neonatal, paediatric and surgical patients requiring critical care. Findings: Between June 2020 and December 2023, the service provided 6014 teleconsultations to manage 1907 patients in 109 medical facilities, mostly in Pakistan and also Afghanistan, Kenya and United Republic of Tanzania. Of the 1907 patients, 652 (34.4%) had COVID-19 and 1244 (65.6%) had other illnesses. The mean duration of teleconsultations was 14.5 min. Of 581 patients for whom outcome data were available, 204 (35.1%) died. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression showed the odds of death decreased with increased number of consultations (> 3) per patient (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.28; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.16-0.48), and increased number of recommendations (≥ 5) per consultation (aOR: 3.09; 95% CI: 1.08-8.84). Conclusion: Our tele-intensive care service helped manage critically ill patients in regions where intensive care had not previously been available. While research on the clinical impact of this model is needed, decision-makers should consider its use to increase provision of critical care in remote and resource-constrained health-care settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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 OpenQuestion graph.