Critical Care Computing

Computing and communication technologies are transforming the way we live and work. Information technology (IT) is facilitating a shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based service economy—the New Economy. There is an evolving consensus that IT is responsible for substantial improvements in workplace productivity that have allowed the economy to grow rapidly with little inflation. Public interest in the changes brought by IT is focused on the Internet. Emblematic of the media attention is the naming of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, as Time Magazine's 1999 Person of the Year. 40 Healthcare will certainly feel the pervasive influence of computing. The Institute for the Future asserts: "Over the next decade, health care in the United States will at last be dramatically affected by the revolution in communication and information technology that has been in process for the last 15 years." 4 In this article the author examines the state of critical care computing. First, the history of computer systems in ICUs is reviewed, then current systems are described and both successes and shortcomings are replaced. Finally, developments in computing technology and in critical care computing systems that are likely to occur over the next 10 years are forecast.