Conclusions

Interfaces to medical equipment for monitoring and collection of data are non-standard and require considerable time and effort on the part of the programmer to design, implement and test even a basic acquisition program. A standard hardware interface would allow software reuse and cut development times considerably.
Clinical research projects often involve gathering data from several monitoring devices simultaneously. A common interface allows synchronous data collection, and produces data that is easier to analyse using comparative statistical methods.
As the sophistication of local and wide-area clinical information systems increases, there is a need to centralise the data collected from a single patient, including real-time physiological data. A universal interface to the bedside monitor would assist greatly in meeting this need. Designers must continue to produce equipment that is highly reliable, of robust construction, and now with a flexible, standard interface to other devices.