[Applications of informatics in anesthesiology: anesthesia graphics]

Computerization has brought radical changes to anesthesiology. Quality of care, management, cost control, training, research, safety and privacy have all improved. The anesthesiologist has been freed from repetitive clerical tasks and is able to make better use of time. A graphic display of anesthesia is only one of the many computer applications available as a consequence of links created among monitoring, continuous infusion and intelligent alarm systems, automatic data collection, network monitoring and the availability of bibliographic information (through Internet connection). The computer graphic display of anesthesia is more precise, legible, complete and reliable (during critical events, in substitutions of anesthesiologists or for research) than the traditional graph. One of the greatest problems of computer graphing today--besides start-up costs--is that of inserting comments on monitoring artifacts, given that the graph is a legally valid medical document.