Patient monitoring systems

In this chapter, we discuss the use of computers in collecting, displaying, storing, and interpreting clinical data, making therapeutic recommendations, and alarming and alerting. In the past, most monitoring data (called vital signs) were in the form of HR and respiratory rate, blood pressure (BP), and body temperature. However, today's ICU monitoring systems are able integrate data from bedside monitors and devices, as well as data from many sources outside the ICU. Although the material presented here deals primarily with patients who are in ICUs, the general principles and techniques are also applicable to other hospitalized patients and electronic medical records (EMRs). Patient monitoring is performed extensively for diagnostic purposes in the emergency department or for therapeutic purposes in the OR. Techniques that initially were only used in the ICU such as bedside monitors are now used routinely on general hospital wards and in some situations even by patients in their homes.