Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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To describe the design and implementation of "INFUSION TOOLBOX," a software tool to control and monitor multiple intravenous drug infusions simultaneously using pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles. ⋯ By adopting an evolutionary solution model we have achieved considerable success in building our drug delivery monitor. In addition we have gained valuable insight into the anesthesia information domain that will allow us to further enhance and expand the system.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
A proposed method for the measurement of anesthetist care variability.
Some critical events in anesthesiology occur as seemingly preventable misadventures, their exact origins indeterminable. Inexperienced anesthetists, anesthesia machine malfunctions, lack of vigilance and human error inevitably initiate some incidents. Anesthesia training improves recognition and decision-making. Avoiding crisis initiation and amelioration of those that do occur is one role of the consultant anesthesiologist. Safe patient care requires medical and procedural knowledge, technical expertise, and control of resources in a complex milieu. Anesthesia simulators are clinical laboratories where anesthetists can sharpen both cognitive and manual skills. Dynamic scenarios allow opportunities for anesthetists to explore and experience crises as they develop and apply their knowledge while attempting to manage these events. Simulator-based scenarios are reproducible and large amounts of useful data can be collected and saved. The authors hypothesize these data can be utilized to compare performance of anesthetists and to measure improvement of individual anesthetists over time. ⋯ It is suggested that the use of the techniques mentioned here may be of value in the development of a standardized testing protocol for anesthetists.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
An IBM PC-based system for the assessment of cardio-respiratory function using oscillating inert gas forcing signals.
An IBM PC-based real-time data acquisition, monitoring and analysis system was developed for the assessment of cardio-respiratory function, i.e. airway dead space, alveolar volume and pulmonary blood flow, using oscillating inert inspired gas forcing signals. ⋯ A system was developed to deliver, monitor and analyse on-line, and in real-time, output data from the sinusoid forcing technique. The technique was administered using the system in various subjects, and produced favourable predictions.