부산대학교 도서관

IN A HOSPITAL'S INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (ICU), the sickest patients receive round-the-clock care as they lie in beds with their bodies connected to a bevy of surrounding machines. This advanced medical equipment is designed to keep an ailing person alive. Intravenous fluids drip into the bloodstream, while mechanical ventilators push air into the lungs. Sensors attached to the body track heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs, while bedside monitors graph the data in undulating lines. When the machines record measurements that are outside of normal parameters, beeps and alarms ring out to alert the medical staff to potential problems. • While this scene is laden with high tech, the technology isn't being used to best advantage. Each machine is monitoring a discrete part of the body, but the machines aren't working in concert. The rich streams of data aren't being captured or analyzed. And it's impossible for the ICU team—critical-care physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and other specialists—to keep watch at every patient's bedside. • The ICU of the future will make far better use of its machines and the continuous streams of data they generate. Monitors won't work in isolation, but instead will pool their information to present a comprehensive picture of the patient's health to doctors. And that information will also flow to artificial intelligence (AI) systems, which will autonomously adjust equipment settings to keep the patient in optimal condition.