Transforming Health Care Through Medical System Integration: From Architecture to Apps

The inability of modern medical devices and clinical information systems to be functionally integrated into safe, reliable, more capable systems is presenting an intractable barrier to the modernization of clinical care. Lives are lost and money is wasted because medical devices cannot be used in a coordinated manner in the care of patients.

Integratable systems of medical devices will enable the synchronized display and analysis of physiological signals, distributed coordination of sensors and actuators, and equipment configuration and management. Medical devices and networks that are capable of safe, reliable, plug-and-play integration will create a medical device ecosystem that can be coordinated by supervisory apps. Future integrated clinical environments (ICEs)¹ will be coordinated by apps that operate through standardized interfaces to unleash innovation in the delivery of innovative, personalized, and safe healthcare.

1. ASTM F2761-09 “Essential safety requirements for equipment comprising the patient-centric integrated clinical environment (ICE) — Part 1: General requirements and conceptual model