Intensive care medicine was for many years practiced within the four walls of an intensive care unit (ICU). Evidence then emerged that many serious adverse events in hospitals were preceded by many hours of slow deterioration, resulting in multi-organ failure and potentially preventable admissions to the ICU. Ironically, these admissions may have been prevented if the skills within the ICU had been available to the patient on the general ward at an earlier stage. The concept of a Medical Emergency Team (MET) was developed to enable staff from the ICU to rapidly identify and respond to serious illness at an earlier stage and, hopefully, prevent serious complications. Since then, other forms of rapid response and outreach systems have been developed. Increasingly, physicians working in ICUs can see the benefit of the early management of serious illness in order to improve patient outcome.
A preliminary report on the 1952 epidemic of poliomyelitis in Copenhagen with special reference to the treatment of acute respiratory insufficiency. Lancet 1953;1:37-41.
Clinical antecedents to in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest. Chest 1990;98:1388-92.
Developing strategies to prevent in-hospital cardiac arrest: Analyzing responses of physicians and nurses in the hours before the event. Crit Care Med 1994;22:244-7.
Confidential inquiry into quality of care before admission to intensive care. Br J Med 1998;316:1853-58.
Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients: Results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study 1. N Engl J Med 1991;324:370-6.
Antecedents to hospital deaths. Intern Med J 2001;31:343-8.
Interhospital comparisons of patient outcome from intensive care: Importance of lead-time bias. Crit Care Med 1989;17:418-22.
Multiple organ failure: Pathophysiology and potential future therapy. Ann Surg 1992;216:117-34.
The process of microbial translocation. Ann Surg 1990;212:496-510.
The prevalence of gut translocation in humans. Gastroenterology 1994;107:643-9.
Gut origin of sepsis: A prospective study investigating associations between bacterial translocation, gastric microflora and septic morbidity. Gut 1999;45:223-8.
Intestinal permeability in the critically ill. Intensive Care Med 1992;18:38-41.
No magic bullets: A systematic review of 102 trials of interventions to improve professional practice. Can Med Assoc J 1995;153:1423-31.
Prospective, randomized trial of survivor values of cardiac index, oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption as resuscitation endpoints in severe trauma. J Trauma 1995;38:780-7.
Frequency of mortality and myocardial infarction during maximizing oxygen delivery: A prospective, randomized trial. Crit Care Med 1995;23:1025-32.
Elevation of systemic oxygen delivery in the treatment of critically ill patients. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1717-22.
The efficacy of central venous and pulmonary artery catheters and therapy based upon them in reducing mortality and morbidity. Arch Surg 1990;125:1332-7.
Response of critically ill patients to treatment aimed at achieving supranormal oxygen delivery and consumption. Chest 1993;103:886-95.
Early goal-directed therapy in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock. N Engl J Med 2001;345:1368-77.
On the history of modern resuscitation. Crit Care med 1996;24:S3-11.
Outcome of intensive care patients in a group of British Intensive Care Units. Crit Care Med 198;26:1337-45.
The need for undergraduate education in Critical Care: Results of a questionnaire to year 6 medical undergraduates, University of New South Wales and recommendations on a curriculum in critical care. Anaesth Intensive Care 1999;27:53-8.
Undergraduate education in critical care medicine. Crit Care med 1992;20:1595-603.
Trauma systems: Current status - future challenges. J Am Med Assoc 1988;259:3597-600.
Trauma mortality in Orange County: The effects of the implementation of a regional trauma system. Arch Emerg Med 1984;13:1-10.
The hospital trauma team: A model for trauma management. J Trauma 1990;30:806-12.
The effect of regionalisation upon the quality of trauma care as assessed by concurrent audit before and after institution of a trauma system: A preliminary report. J Trauma 1986;26:812-20.
The medical emergency team. Anaesth Intensive Care 1995;23:183-6.
The medical emergency team: A new strategy to identify and intervene in high risk patients. Clin Intensive Care 1995;6:269-72.
Clinical outcome indicators in acute hospital medicine. Clin Intensive Care 2000;11:89-94.
The patient at-risk team: identifying and managing seriously ill ward patients. Anaesthesia 1999;54:853-60.
Prospective evaluation of a Modified Early Warning Score to aid earlier detection of patients developing critical illness on a surgical ward. Br J Anaesth 2000;84:663.
Clinical review: Outreach-a strategy for improving the care of the acutely ill hospitalised patient. Crit Care 2004;8:33-40.
Effects of a medical emergency tem on reduction of incidence and mortality from unexpected cardiac arrests in hospital: preliminary study. BMJ 2002;324:387-90.
A prospective before-and-after trial of a medical emergency team. Med J Aust 2003;179:283-9.
Six year audit of cardiac arrests and medical emergency team calls in an Australian outer metropolitan teaching hospital. BMJ 2007;335:1210-2.
Rates of in-hospital arrests, deaths and intensive care admissions: The effect of a medical emergency team. Med J Aus 2000;173:236-40.
Prospective controlled trial of effect of medical emergency team on postoperative morbidity and mortality rates. Crit Care Med 2004;32:916-21.
The affect of critical care outereach on postoperative serious adverse events. Anaesthesia 2004;59:762-6.
Introducing critical care outreach: A ward-randomized trial of phased introduction in a general hospital. Intensive Care Med 2004;30:1398-404.
Effect of the critical care outreach team on patient survival to discharge from hospital and redmission to critical care: Non-randomised population based study. BMJ 2003;37:1014-6.
Impact of an outreach team on readmission to a critical care unit. Anaesthesia 2003;58:328-32.
Impact of a critical care outreach team on critical care readmissions and mortality. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand 2004;48:1096-100.
The effect of critical care outreach on the incidence and outcome of cardiac arrest among hospital inpatients: The chain of survival must begin before cardiac arrest. Anaesthesia 2004;59:933.
Introduction of the medical emergency team (MET) system: A cluster-randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2005;365:2091-7.