Volume 25 - Issue 3, 2025

Value-based critical care is a transformative approach in intensive care that aims to improve patient outcomes while optimising resource utilisation and reducing unnecessary costs. It emphasises the delivery of the best possible care tailored to individual patient needs, while aligning clinical practice with outcomes that matter most to patients and their families. Value-based critical care prioritis...

In recent years, value-based healthcare has been endorsed by policymakers and clinical practice initiatives. Consequently, there is a need to engage patients and their relatives in identifying value and working jointly with professionals in new ways of delivering high-quality care. In this article, we present which value-based outcomes, here stated as reported needs and preferences of critical care survivo...

Implementing an AI screening tool in our ICU for palliative care consults streamlined early alignment of treatment with patient goals, decreased futile interventions, and demonstrated scalable, value-based, patient-centric critical care delivery. This special edition of Value-Based Critical Care highlights innovative approaches that improve clinical outcomes while ensuring care reflects what matter...

Sepsis remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs), exacerbated by delays in diagnosis and inadequate risk stratification. Despite advances in critical care, conventional biomarkers like procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) often fail to provide timely or specific detection. Pancreatic Stone Protein (PSP), a stress-induced secretory protein, has emerged as...

As advanced technology increasingly plays a role in monitoring critical biometrics and assessing care, sometimes in favour of personalised interventions, machines can overshadow the patients they are meant to support. Individuals arriving in the ICU often lose their choice, control, and ability to communicate. This paper explores ways to humanise the ICU experience through thoughtful design and communicati...

Early vasopressin initiation in septic shock may improve outcomes beyond the current practice of waiting for higher norepinephrine doses. Recent studies suggest starting AVP earlier can reduce shock duration and hospital mortality. Despite AVP often being started late, a proactive, protocol-driven approach that considers Nor dose, duration, and clinical context is feasible and potentially lifesaving, suppo...

Music therapy’s (MT) integration into the ICU liberation bundle is underexplored. We highlight existing literature, present vignettes illustrating MT in action, and offer recommendations to optimise ICU MT across the lifespan. The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Liberation Bundle (A-F) is a comprehensive set of evidence-based guidelines developed by the Society of Critical Care Medicine focused on ass...

Recognising the mechanisms of air trapping that cause status asthmaticus can help optimise the setting of invasive mechanical ventilation. This article provides an academic visual summary to facilitate understanding. Status asthmaticus can be life-threatening. Invasive mechanical ventilation is one of the therapeutic actions for its management, along with well-described pharmacological therapies. W...

A five-dimensioned quality management plan has been developed to make the paediatric and neonatal transport safer in a family-centred care model. The goal is to move towards excellence in care. The Emergency Medical System (known in Spanish as the Sistema de Emergencias Médicas, SEM) is part of CatSalut, the Catalan Health Service. The Specialized Pediatric medicalised emergency transport began in...

When we clinicians find ourselves as critically ill patients or visiting family members, the dynamic changes. We often receive more detailed information, additional treatments, extended visiting hours, and other privileges. But is that truly fair? It is very stressful and challenging for both patients and families to be involved in intensive care treatment. One-third of the family members report im...

This review highlights airway management in traumatic brain injury, focusing on strategies to prevent secondary brain injury. Key interventions include advanced preoxygenation, haemodynamic stabilisation, cautious sedation, selective use of prehospital intubation or supraglottic devices, protective ventilation, and early antibiotic prophylaxis to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia. Traumatic br...

Traumatic rhabdomyolysis is a clinical and biochemical syndrome frequently encountered in the intensive care unit, characterised by skeletal muscle necrosis and the release of intracellular components such as myoglobin, creatine kinase, and electrolytes into the bloodstream. Trauma-induced muscle injury may result from crush injuries, compartment syndrome, prolonged immobilisation, or severe burns. This re...

For a full listing of events visit https://iii.hm/icuevents2025 1-3 8th Annual Anesthesiology Update 2025 Michigan, USA https://iii.hm/1vzf 7-8 11th International Congress on Trauma, Critical Care & Emergency Medicine Paris, France https://iii.hm/1vzg 15-17 APICS 2025 – Asia Pacific Intensive Care Symposium Singapore https://iii.hm/1vzh 23-24 Internationa...