Modern critical care is characterized by the collection of large volumes
of data and the making of urgent patient care decisions. The two do not
necessarily go together easily. For many years the hope has been that
ICU data management systems could play a meaningful role in ICU decision
support. These hopes now have a basis in fact, and this book details the
history, methodology, current status, and future prospects for critical
care decision support systems. By focusing on real and operational
systems, the book demonstrates the importance of integrating data from
diverse clinical data sources; the keys to implementing clinically
usable systems; the pitfalls to avoid in implementation; and the
development of effective evaluation methods.