A patient monitoring system designed as a platform for application development

This paper presents a patient data monitoring system for use in critical care areas. The system incorporates design criteria from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers' (IEEE) proposed standards body (P1073), the Medical Information Bus (MIB) and from our design team. Existing hardware and software technology is utilized wherever possible to maintain cost effectiveness. A major design objective is providing a consistent environment in which to develop applications for critical patient care delivery. The system allows applications to be developed without specific knowledge of the configuration of the bedside environment. Therefore, investments in 'user' application development are shielded from changes in patient care delivery technology. The system has been in limited operation in a surgical intensive care unit for several months with prototype applications.