Computers and monitoring: Information management systems, alarms, and drug delivery

Information management systems The vast array of monitoring modalities used in the practice of anesthesia and critical care provide a snapshot of a patient's condition at any given moment. Trends of physiologic parameters, however, are often more telling than any individual measurement. Many monitoring systems, therefore, include functionality that automatically stores recent data and allows clinicians to retrieve the data in tabular or graphical format to review such trends. However, the durability of these recordings is typically limited to the time of the actual patient encounter, unless deliberately saved in some form. In addition, the data are often acquired from various stand-alone monitors, making it difficult to integrate the data from the various sources. Because retrospective review of such data at some time in the future may be beneficial for patient care, clinical research, quality improvement, administrative, and medicolegal purposes, medical records have developed to memorialize these patient encounters.