Internet rounds

Internet Rounds was first described by Redmond Burke, MD in the journal Seminars of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in 2004 as a way for physicians to perform patient rounds from anywhere at anytime via the Internet.
"Physicians traditionally use various forms of rounds to learn about their patients and exchange information - teaching rounds, work rounds, card rounds etc - the goal being to enhance patient care. After developing a Web based electronic medical record for our patients, it was an intuitive step to begin rounding on our patients over the WWW, not as a replacement of bedside rounds, because we still wanted to touch our patients every day, but as a way to stay in touch when we were away from the hospital. This became rounds for the digital age - "Internet Rounds". Redmond Burke MD, 2004
In the hospital environment, particularly in an Intensive Care Unit, physicians make a series of regularly scheduled professional calls on their patients, often referred to as "rounds". During the rounding process the doctor will review the patient’s status and develop a treatment strategy. Using a web based electronic medical record enables physicians to round on patients over the World-Wide-Web, via a secure connection to hospital information systems - including laboratory values, x-rays, bedside monitors and patient images.
"We were stunned to see that our colleagues naturally adopted Internet Rounds, and made it a daily part of their care, logging in for internet rounds at all hours of the day and night, from remote locations around the world, with a wide variety of Web enabled devices" Jeffrey A White, 2004

A rounding physician is required to generate a medical record documenting his or her assessment and plan to be included in the patient’s chart. The resulting document is referred to as a progress note and is generated by the physician or an assistant for each patient encounter. Progress note format varies per physician or practice and is generally written in the format of a SOAP note (an acronym for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan).

Documenting patient encounters in the medical record is an integral part of medical practice workflow. The information contained within the progress note is essential to the healthcare process and is used by the hospital for medical, legal, and billing purposes. The accuracy, completeness, and legibility of the note ultimately determines the ability to communicate patient progress as well as the hospital’s reimbursement on professional services.

The first practical application of internet rounds was developed by Teges Corporation in 2001 and is now currently marketed under the name i-Rounds®.

See Also
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?dbpubmed&uid15619198&cmdshowdetailview&indexedgoogle PubMed Article: Internet Rounds]

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