Physiological profiles and therapeutic goals--graphical aids support quick orientation in intensive care

Although present-day technical facilities and modern patient monitoring produce an overwhelming number of measured parameters in intensive care medicine, there is a great need to develop decision aids to enable ICU personnel to become quickly orientated in the pathophysiological state of the patients under their care. One possible way for the representation of a multidimensional pattern of physiological values is the graphical display of a physiological profile of a patient's state. A combination of this display and the concept of 'therapeutic goals' is well suited for reducing the complexity of the computer output and for aiding in the necessary decisions in a twofold manner: substantial deviations of a single parameter are instantly visible and may be checked for their causes, the physician obtains an impression of the most serious deviations from the intended therapeutic goal for his patient. So she/he can act to support the patient in achieving the most likely course for recovery.