Anesthesia Machine Design

Abstract

In the United States anesthesia machines have advanced because of new data management and data display technology. Anesthesia machine based computer networks now acquire data from the anesthesia machine, the breathing circuit sensors and the patient monitors. Thus, the anesthesia machine has become the focal point for data collection, data management and data display. Machines now have user configurable displays with numeric data, graphic displays, wave forms and trends. Computer tools are now available so the untrained user can use menues, organ specific data structures, task oriented communication protocols and data editing facilities Computer networks now link the preoperative, postoperative, and operating rooms and provide data access from all sites. Numerous research groups are looking at correlations within the computer data base, attempting to automatically display the most meaningful data, when it is needed most for decision making.