Computers in anesthesiology--a look ahead.

The anesthesiologist is the "systems" person in the operating room whose primary function is making decisions with respect to the patient's pharmacologic and physiologic status. The introduction of digital data processing equipment in the operating room must aid this decision-making function. Instruments that are used to monitor the anesthesia machine or patient variables will provide input to a digital computer. The computer will serve to aggregate and organize signals for data processing and display. Engineering a suitable display with appropriate interfacing with the anesthesiologist is one of the major problems to be solved. As higher levels of processing become available and as the display technique develops, the array of instruments in the operating room will become an integrated information system to better support and aid the anesthesiologist.