ICmed Answers Call For Help, Assists NYC Health + Hospital With Tele-Critical Care Support

    BALTIMORE, MD, April 30, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- As hospitals in New York City reel from the constant influx of patients with critical illness due to COVID-19, Baltimore digital health company ICmed, LLC has partnered with Maryland and North Carolina doctors to provide rapid tele-consultation to assist with the shortage of critical care specialists. The company is phasing in this support at two particularly hard-hit NYC Health + Hospitals centers, Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn and Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Both hospitals have exceeded both their normal ICU capacity in terms of beds and specialists. "The pandemic has caused an unprecedented surge in our ICUs and our hospitals have 4-5x the amount of ICU patients than usual, with a tremendous increase in critical care consults as well," says Dr. Mona Krouss, Patient Safety Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals.

ICmed's digital health platform allows patients, care providers, and physicians to connect in order to promote optimal health. The solution facilitates provider-to-provider consultation, so physicians caring for COVID-19 patients in the New York hospitals, who may not have specialty training in the use of mechanical ventilators, can receive instantaneous consultation from critical care physicians based in Maryland and North Carolina. Using a mobile or web-based interface, physicians in New York don't need any specialized equipment to get started with the tele-consultation provided by ICmed. "We knew we had a solution that could be used to provide critical medical support to areas of the country that needed it the most. We rapidly adapted the ICmed platform to support the front-line medical professionals caring for patients during this international crisis. This effort fits perfectly with our mission," said Anil Kshepakaran, ICmed's Founder and CEO.

The team of specialty physicians, associated with Atrium Health in North Carolina and the Baltimore Chapter of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, volunteered to provide assistance at a time when travel to New York was not feasible. "Our critical care leadership felt like this was an effort we could all get behind and leverage Atrium Health's existing virtual critical care resources. I am grateful for the collaboration with ICmed as they rapidly and selflessly implemented this platform," says Benjamin Bringardner, M.D. a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine specialist with Atrium Health. The Maryland and North Carolina doctors are volunteering to work additional hours outside their regularly allotted time caring for patients at their home institutions.

With the pandemic hitting different areas of the country at different times, remote critical care leverages available expertise from non-stressed areas, allowing them to provide virtual assistance where it is needed most. Within a span of 10 days the team from ICmed had made the necessary enhancements to their Enterprise platform and physicians from Maryland and North Carolina developed a schedule to provide around-the-clock consultations for the upcoming weeks. The quick implementation was certainly welcome by those health care providers on the front-line in New York City, according to Dr. Krouss. "Having another way to get immediate access to critical care support provides a great relief to our staff who are overwhelmed with the number of sick COVID patients. Knowing there is additional help available is a great comfort!"

About ICmed

ICmed is a digital health company based in Baltimore, Maryland. Their mission is to promote patient and family engagement, healthcare team collaboration, and consumer control of their health information. They are providing the Enterprise platform at no cost during an extended trial period during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing doctors and other health professionals to continue providing optimal care from their patients.

For more information about ICmed, please visit www.icmedonline.com, on Twitter at @ICmedonline and on Facebook at facebook.com/icmedonline.

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