REMOTE ANALYSIS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA FROM NEUROSURGICAL ICU PATIENTS

Recent technical advances in Internet-based client/server applications and new multimedia communications protocols are enabling the developm ent of cost-effective, platform-independent solutions to the problem o f remote access to continuously acquired physiological data. The UCLA Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has developed a distributed com puter system that provides access over the World Wide Web (WWW) to cur rent and previously acquired physiological data, such as intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure, and heart rate from critical ca re patients. Physicians and clinical researchers can access these data through personal computers from their offices, from their homes, or e ven while on the road. The system creates and continuously updates a d atabase of all monitored parameters in data formats that can readily b e used for further clinical studies. This paper describes an extension to this system that allows for remote interaction with and analysis o f the data via the WWW. Physicians can now pose a limited, predefined set of clinically relevant questions to the system without having to b e at the patient's bedside.