The virtual pediatric intensive care unit. Practice in the new millennium

Patients and their families meet with health care providers in a complex marketplace. The information revolution is providing access to vast amounts of information and new ways to understand it. More important, perhaps, is that it also is providing new ways of communicating information not only about health but also about the health care delivery process. This occurrence makes it possible for patients not only to diagnosis and treat themselves but also see how well the professionals do it. Like all marketplaces, asymmetries in information define the value of the interaction. Patients see physicians because they have no way of overcoming this knowledge barrier, and health care is a highly regulated market because of these asymmetries in information. New information technologies in general and telemedicine (which, in this broad sense, include distance learning for patients) can address and erode these information asymmetries. This technology threatens to have a profound effect on health care. Telemedicine offers to increase greatly the reach (connectivity) and richness (bandwidth, customization, and interactivity) of the health care information marketplace. This radically will change the way in which physicians practice critical care. Intensivists must ensure that patients continue to receive high-quality critical care. This practice will require embracing these new technologies. Resisting them will be catastrophic. What is the VPICU? It is a committed group of pediatric intensivits who are dedicated to supporting pediatric critical care medicine in the enhancement of knowledge about pediatric critical care. It includes application of information technologies to support the practice of pediatric critical care. It primarily is focused on understanding the health care delivery process and providing the tools for pediatric intensive care practitioners to better understand the care they deliver. It is the desire of the VPICU to create a virtual community in which pediatric critical care practitioners work together to understand the way they practice and to identify and implement better ways to deliver pediatric critical care. This virtual community will be responsible for clinical and economic performance in the practice of pediatric critical care. The VPICU realizes that this requires the tools to make high-quality decisions and that these decisions depend on data and communication. The author invites all pediatric intensivists to participate in the VPICU to achieve the goals of better practice through the application of information technologies in pediatric critical care.