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Year in review 2006: Critical Care – resource management

Marcus J Schultz1,2,3 email, Michael Kuiper2,4 email, Peter E Spronk2,5 email, Margreeth B Vroom1 email and Ognjen Gajic6 email

1Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2Laboratory of Experimental Intensive Care and Anesthesiology (LEICA), Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

3HERMES Critical Care Group, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

4Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Medical Center Leeuwarden, Henri Dunantweg 2, 8934 AD, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

5Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Gelre Hospital, location Lukas, Albert Schweitzerlaan 31, 7334 DZ Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

6Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, First Street 200 SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA

author email corresponding author email

Critical Care 2007, 11:223doi:10.1186/cc5961

Published: 24 August 2007

Abstract

As health care resources become increasingly constrained, it is imperative that intensive care unit resources be optimized. In the years to come, a number of challenges to intensive care medicine will need to be addressed as society changes. Last year's Critical Care papers provided us with a number of interesting and highly accessed original papers dealing with health care resources. The information yielded by these studies can help us to deal with issues such as prognostication, early detection and treatment of delirium, prevention of medical errors and use of radiology resources in critically ill patients. Finally, several aspects of scientific research in critically ill patients were investigated, focusing on the possibility of obtaining informed consent and recall of having given informed consent.


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