[Information science in intensive care medicine. Examples of the European approach]

The modern treatment of patients in a precarious state requires the use of technical appliances which become more complex and more numerous day by day. The data generated by these appliances, together with the conventional measurements of physiological parameters carried out by the nursing ataff during care, with the results of laboratory examinations and with medical physical examinations, represent a raw material of information which tends to increase each year. The repetitive and hand-written consigning of these data, likewise their traditional laborious consultation, no longer guarantees today the taking of rapid decisions concerning the patients. Now, this rapid decision-making is at the centre of the functioning of present-day intensive medicine, of the surveillance and optimal treatment of the patients, of the functional organization of the intensive care unit, and of the "economic" efficiency of the exploitation. It seems locigal, therefore, to wish to avail of the resources provided by information science to resolve these problems. The United States, Japan and certain European countries have done so. Our purpose is to give some examples of the European approach.