The design of a simulator for an intensive care unit patient data management system

Abstract

A patient data management system (PDMS) 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. A patient data simulator was developed for the purpose of complete testing of the PDMS. The simulator also allows for training the medical staff independently of hospital facilities and at a remote location from the ICU. This work outlines the design and functionality of the simulator and focuses on its implementation using OS/2's presentation manager window environment. Some experimental results and performance evaluations are presented, along with areas of future development and use.<>