An Environmental Scan of Anesthesia Information Management Systems in the American and Canadian Marketplace

Anesthesia Information Management Systems are specialized forms of electronic medical records used by anesthesiologists to automatically and reliably collect, store, and present perioperative patient data. There are no recent academic publications that outline the names and features of AIMS in the current American and Canadian marketplace. An environmental scan was performed to first identify existing AIMS in this marketplace, and then describe and compare these AIMS. We found 13 commercially available AIMS but were able to describe in detail the features and functionalities of only 10 of these systems, as three vendors did not participate in the study. While all AIMS have certain key features, other features and functionalities are only offered by some of the AIMS. Features less commonly offered included patient portals for pre-operative questionnaires, clinical decision support systems, and voice-to-text capability for documentation. The findings of this study can inform AIMS procurement efforts by enabling anesthesia departments to compare features across AIMS and find an AIMS whose features best fit their needs and priorities. Future studies are needed to describe the features and functionalities of these AIMS at a more granular level, and also assess the usability and costs of these systems.