Intensive care unit alarm repeater and ECG viewer on a WiFi-enabled personal digital assistant

The availability on the market of advanced Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and the widesprcad use of reliable Wireless LANs pennit the development of new solutions, which allow the improvement of medical procedures and the reduction of emergency response time. In ihis study, we developed a Windows CE based application, which can display real-time ECG traces, clinical data and alarms of monitored patients on a WiFienabled FDA device. The purpose of our study was to check whether this system could improve the standard medical procedures and decrease the emergency response time, through a usability test in ICU. The system was judged useful by nursing and medical stafi The clinical test confirmed the feasibility and usability of the system.