Standards for physiological data transmission and archiving for the support of the service of critical care

Abstract

Physiological data is monitored and displayed on medical devices around the world every day, and the volume of this data is steadily increasing and newer monitoring devices enter the clinical setting. However, the vast majority of this data is lost since it is most often displayed once as it is recorded, perhaps replayed one or more times while it exists in the device's volatile memory. What little data that is permanently recorded is most commonly saved through hand written annotations, in paper records and in some limited samples stored on hospital clinical information systems. Meanwhile, current methods of data analysis provide opportunities to utilize this data for improved care of these same critical care patients. A major inhibitor to this becoming reality is the lack of standards for the representation, transmission and storage of physiological data. HL7, for example, does not include definitions for time series data. Research into the use of these data will soon be reaching the clinical setting and the need for such standards to be defined is becoming urgent.