Global Critical Care: Moving Forward in Resource-Limited Settings
Date
2019Journal
Annals of global healthPublisher
Ubiquity PressType
Review
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Caring for critically ill patients is challenging in resource-limited settings, where the burden of disease and mortality from potentially treatable illnesses is higher than in resource-rich areas. Barriers to delivering quality critical care in these settings include lack of epidemiologic data and context-specific evidence for medical decision-making, deficiencies in health systems organization and resources, and institutional obstacles to implementation of life-saving interventions. Potential solutions include the development of common definitions for intensive care unit (ICU), intensivist, and intensive care to create a universal ICU organization framework; development of educational programs for capacity building of health care professionals working in resource-limited settings; global prioritization of epidemiologic and clinical research in resource-limited settings to conduct timely and ethical studies in response to emerging threats; adaptation of international guidelines to promote implementation of evidence-based care; and strengthening of health systems that integrates these interventions. This manuscript reviews the field of global critical care, barriers to safe high-quality care, and potential solutions to existing challenges. We also suggest a roadmap for improving the treatment of critically ill patients in resource-limited settings. © 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Identifier to cite or link to this item
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85061275431&doi=10.5334%2faogh.2413&partnerID=40&md5=94ed25bef8eb863898d2b1d917312280; http://hdl.handle.net/10713/8582ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.5334/aogh.2413