Database design of an intensive care unit patient data management system

Abstract

A patient data management system (PDMS) developed for use in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Montreal Children's Hospital is described. The PDMS acquires real-time patient data from a network of physiological bedside monitors, and facilitates the review and interpretation of this data by presenting it as graphical trends, charts, and plots on a color video display. The data management structure integrates varied data types and provides database support for different applications, while preserving the real-time acquisition of network data. This structure is based primarily on OS/2 Extended Edition relational database. The relational database design is expected to solve the query shortcomings of the previous data management structure, as well as offer support for security and concurrency.<>