Monitoring (medicine)
Some monitors can even warn of pending fatal cardiac conditions before visible signs are noticeable to clinical staff, such as atrial fibrillation or premature ventricular contraction (PVC).
They may be accompanied by numerical readouts of computed parameters on the original data, such as maximum, minimum and average values, pulse and respiratory frequencies, and so on.
[citation needed] Old analog patient displays, in contrast, were based on oscilloscopes, and had one channel only, usually reserved for electrocardiographic monitoring (ECG).
One monitor would track a patient's blood pressure, while another would measure pulse oximetry, another the ECG.
Later analog models had a second or third channel displayed on the same screen, usually to monitor respiration movements and blood pressure.
These machines were widely used and saved many lives, but they had several restrictions, including sensitivity to electrical interference, base level fluctuations and absence of numeric readouts and alarms.
Digital monitoring has created the possibility, which is being fully developed, of integrating the physiological data from the patient monitoring networks into the emerging hospital electronic health record and digital charting systems, using appropriate health care standards which have been developed for this purpose by organizations such as IEEE and HL7.
In addition, automated ECG interpretation incorporates diagnostic codes automatically into the charts.
Long-distance connectivity can avail for telemedicine, which involves provision of clinical health care at a distance.
A medical monitor can also have the function to produce an alarm (such as using audible signals) to alert the staff when certain criteria are set, such as when some parameter exceeds of falls the level limits.
This class of monitors delivers information gathered in body-area networking (BAN) to e.g. smart phones and implemented autonomous agents.
For example, the parameter of oxygen saturation is usually monitored to detect changes in respiratory capability of an individual.
, where:[2] For example, if a patient has a hemoglobin level of 100 g/L, the analytical variation (CVa) is 1.8% and the intra-individual variability CVi is 2.2%, then the critical difference is 8.1 g/L.
[2] In a clinical laboratory, a delta check is a laboratory quality control method that compares a current test result with previous test results of the same person, and detects whether there is a substantial difference, as can be defined as a critical difference as per previous section, or defined by other pre-defined criteria.
[10] Monitoring medicine fills the gap to prevent diagnosis errors and can assist in future medical research by analyzing all data of many patients.
End-tidal carbon dioxide (if tracheal tube or supraglottic airway device in situ) Additional monitoring which should be immediately available 1.
Capnograph if the patient has a tracheal tube or supraglottic airway device in situ, or is deeply sedated 5.
Depth of anaesthesia monitors recommended when patients are anaesthetised with total intravenous techniques.
