Our Physiologic Monitoring System Evaluation Criteria: What We Tested and Why

This article discusses the test criteria we used in our Evaluations of physiologic monitoring systems, to provide background on our ratings and purchasing recommendations. In particular, we focus on our criteria related to alarms, which our testing revealed to be an important product differentiator.

Physiologic monitoring systems are pervasive in healthcare and vitally important to patient care. They provide real-time measurements of monitored parameters and alarm notification of changes in a patient's condition. They also provide non-real-time (e.g., historic) information such as trending and alarm review data. We evaluated the following systems:

Our Evaluation criteria are based on ECRI Institute's decades of experience with evaluating physiologic monitors and investigating adverse events related to physiologic monitors. They are also based...