Framework for biosignal interpretation in intensive care and anesthesia

Improved monitoring improves outcomes of care. As critical care is "critical", everything that can be done to detect and prevent complications as early as possible benefits the patients. In spite of major efforts by the research community to develop and apply sophisticated biosignal interpretation methods (BSI), the uptake of the results by industry has been poor. Consequently, the BSI methods used in clinical routine are fairly simple. This paper postulates that the main reason for the poor uptake is the insufficient bridging between the actors (i.e., clinicians, industry and research). This makes it difficult for the BSI developers to understand what can be implemented into commercial systems and what will be accepted by clinicians as routine tools. A framework is suggested that enables improved interaction and cooperation between the actors. This framework is based on the emerging commercial patient monitoring and data management platforms which can be shared and utilized by all concerned, from research to development and finally to clinical evaluation.