The role of telehealth in pediatric emergency care

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine published a report titled "Emergency Care for Children: Growing Pains,” in which it described pediatric emergency care as uneven at best. Since then, telehealth has emerged as one of the great equalizers in care of children, particularly for those in rural and underresourced communities. Clinicians in these settings may lack pediatric‐specific specialization or experience in caring for critically ill or injured children. Telehealth consultation can provide timely and safe management for many medical problems in children and can prevent many unnecessary and often long transport to a pediatric center while avoiding delays in care, especially for time‐sensitive and acute interventions. Telehealth is an important component of pediatric readiness of hospitals and is a valuable tool in facilitating health care access in low resourced and critical access areas. This paper provides an overview of meaningful applications of telehealth programs in pediatric emergency medicine, discusses the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on these services, and highlights challenges in setting up, adopting, and maintaining telehealth services.

Translating COVID-19 knowledge to practice: Enhancing emergency medicine using the "wisdom of crowds".

In the spring of 2020, emergency physicians found themselves in new, uncharted territory as there were few data available for understanding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. In response, knowledge was being crowd sourced and shared across online platforms. The "wisdom of crowds" is an important vehicle for sharing information and expertise. In this article, we explore concepts related to the social psychology of group decisionmaking and knowledge translation. We then analyze a scenario in which the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), a professional medical society, used the wisdom of crowds (via the EngagED platform) to disseminate clinically relevant information and create a useful resource called the "ACEP COVID-19 Field Guide." We also evaluate the crowd-sourced approach, content, and attributes of EngagED compared to other social media platforms. We conclude that professional organizations can play a more prominent role using the wisdom of crowds for augmenting pandemic response efforts.