The Future of Critical Care: Optimizing Technologies and a Learning Healthcare System to Potentiate a More Humanistic Approach to Critical Care

Heather Meissen; Michelle Ng Gong; An-Kwok Ian Wong; Jerry J Zimmerman; Nalini Nadkarni; Sandra L Kane-Gil; Javier Amador-Castaneda; Heatherlee Bailey; Samuel M Brown; Ashley D DePriest; Ifeoma Mary Eche; Mayur Narayan; Jose Javier Provencio; Nneka O Sederstrom; Jonathan Sevransky; Jordan Tremper; Rebecca A Aslakson

doi:10.1097/CCE.0000000000000659

The Future of Critical Care: Optimizing Technologies and a Learning Healthcare System to Potentiate a More Humanistic Approach to Critical Care

Crit Care Explor. 2022 Mar 15;4(3):e0659. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000000659. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Heather Meissen¹, Michelle Ng Gong^{2

3}, An-Kwok Ian Wong⁴, Jerry J Zimmerman⁵, Nalini Nadkarni⁶, Sandra L Kane-Gil⁷, Javier Amador-Castaneda⁸, Heatherlee Bailey⁹, Samuel M Brown¹⁰, Ashley D DePriest¹¹, Ifeoma Mary Eche¹², Mayur Narayan¹³, Jose Javier Provencio¹⁴, Nneka O Sederstrom¹⁵, Jonathan Sevransky^{1

16}, Jordan Tremper¹⁷, Rebecca A Aslakson^{18

19}

Affiliations

¹ Emory Critical Care Center, Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA.
² Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Health System, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.
³ Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Montefiore Health System, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.
⁴ Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC.
⁵ Departments of Medicine and Anesthesiology, Seattle Children's Hospital, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA.
⁶ Department of Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁷ University of Pittsburgh, School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh, PA.
⁸ New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.
⁹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC.
¹⁰ Intermountain Medical Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
¹¹ Nutrition and Food Services, Wellstar Health System, Marietta, GA.
¹² Department of Pharmacy, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA.
¹³ Division of Trauma, Burns, Critical and Acute Care, Department of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY.
¹⁴ Department of Neurology, University of Virginia, Charlottsville, VA.
¹⁵ Center for Bioethics, Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis, MN.
¹⁶ Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA.
¹⁷ CommonSpirit Health, Tacoma, WA.
¹⁸ Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
¹⁹ Division of Primary Care and Population Health, Department of Medicine, Palliative Care Section, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Abstract

While technological innovations are the invariable crux of speculation about the future of critical care, they cannot replace the clinician at the bedside. This article summarizes the work of the Society of Critical Care Medicine-appointed multiprofessional task for the Future of Critical Care. The Task Force notes that critical care practice will be transformed by novel technologies, integration of artificial intelligence decision support algorithms, and advances in seamless data operationalization across diverse healthcare systems and geographic regions and within federated datasets. Yet, new technologies will be relevant and meaningful only if they improve the very human endeavor of caring for someone who is critically ill.

Keywords: critical care; future; innovations; patient-centered care; technology.