Home  Back Topics CD Orders  INDEX 
Medical Equipment
Sensors may be used to monitor a patient's health in a hospital.

A sensor measures a quantity such as heart rate, breathing rate, blood oxygen, and temperature.

The sensors are connected to a computer and their readings are used as input. The data is analysed and displayed on a monitor or used to initialise alarm systems.

Some sensors are analogue (Eg temperature) where the readings may be any value in a continuous range...

...and some are digital (pulse rate) with a possible set of distinct values.

 

A hospital may also use computer controlled scanning devices such as ...
  • MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) scanners - uses magnetism to build up images of the inside of the body.
  • CAT (Computerised Axial Tomography) scanners - uses multiple X-Ray images to build up a 3D picture of body organs such as the heart.

These scanners are used to detect abnormalities such as tumors in patient's organs or blockages in flowing systems.

There is generally no need for a patient to stay in hospital, although they may be given a sedative before the scan.

 

These scanning devices are...
  • painless for the patient
  • non-intrusive - no surgery or probes are involved.
 ...but they are...
  • expensive
  • sometimes lengthy - a single scan may take up to an hour.
Research is being done to get faster scans with clearer resulting pictures.

 
It is important that patient care is not interrupted or becomes impossible due to computer crashes, so hospitals will generally have a number of computers available so that if one breaks down there is always another to carry on.

Emergency generators may be used or a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) - special power source that takes over if there is a power cut.