• George John, John Victor Peter, Binila Chacko, Kishore Pichamuthu, Aparajita Rao, K Subbalakshmi, Kavitha Elizabeth George, Sawan Kumar Agarwal, S Margret Anouncia, Ebenezer Sunderraj, and Arul Siromoney.
• Medical Intensive Care Unit, Christian Medical College Hospital, Medical Intensive Care group, Vellore, India.
• Indian J Crit Care Med. 2009 Jul 1;13(3):136-42.

BackgroundComputerized medical information systems have been popularized over the last two decades to improve quality and safety, and for decreasing medical errors.AimTo develop a clinician-friendly computer-based support system in the intensive care unit (ICU) that incorporates recording, reminders, alerts, checklists and diagnostic differentials for common conditions encountered in critical care.Materials And MethodsThis project was carried out at the Medical ICU CMC Hospital, Vellore, in collaboration with the Computer Science Department, VIT University. The first phase was to design and develop monitoring and medication sheets. Terminologies such as checklists (intervention list that pops up at defined times for all patients), reminders (intervention unique to each patient) and alerts (time-based, value-based, trend-based) were defined. The diagnostic and intervention bundles were characterized in the second phase. The accuracy and reliability of the software to generate alerts, reminders and diagnoses was tested in the third phase. The fourth phase will be to integrate this with the hospital information system and the bedside monitors.ResultsAlpha testing was performed using six scenarios written by intensivists. The software generated real-time alerts and reminders and provided diagnostic differentials relevant to critical care. Predefined interventions for each diagnostic possibility appeared as pop-ups. Problems identified during alpha testing were rectified prior to beta testing.ConclusionsThe use of a computer-assisted monitoring, recording and diagnostic system appears promising. It is envisaged that further software refinements following beta testing would facilitate the improvement of quality and safety in the critical care environment.

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