A team of researchers from Wayne State University was recently issued a U.S. patent on a technology that will offer anesthesiologists better methods for monitoring and managing patients in the operating room.
General anesthesia decisions on dosages are challenging and depend on patient medical conditions, surgical procedures, drug interactions, and physiological variables such as blood pressure and heart rate. Therefore, drug impact is difficult to predict subjectively and manually, and depends on extensive clinical experience and highly sharpened vigilance. Errors in anesthesia decisions, while infrequent, can occur even with experienced personnel, and the resulting impact ranges from minor consequences to serious morbidity or even mortality.
