Point of care: New connectivity standards and novel technologies in intensive care

About two decades ago, heart and liver transplant centres initiated point-of-care (POC) esting to meet the requirements of accelerated medical decision making. From the perspective of knowledge-integrating systems for intensive care, new communication standards (e.g. CLSI POCT1-A, CEN ISO/IEEE 11073 'VITAL') enable a seamless information exchange of POC systems, vital function monitors and information systems. With computerised POC management systems increasingly including vendor-neutral products, they provide an appropriate data management platform to communicate with both multiple instrument platforms and laboratory information systems or other hospital information systems, thereby significantly imp-roving the diagnostic-therapeutic process. Ultimately, innovative technologies implementing networking wireless data acquisition (Body Area Network) and advances towards the 'automated testing machine' will transform the current practice of rapid response diagnosis in crit ical care medicine.