Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 15, 519-527, Copyright © 1968 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

The Future of Computers in Anaesthesia

¹ Institute of Bio-Medical Electronics and Department of Anaesthesia, University of Toronto

The anaesthetist of the future will turn to computers to assist him in the increasingly complicated surgical procedures for which he will have to supply anaesthesia. This reflects an important facet of anaesthesia, the fact that the anaesthetist has to make complex decisions in real time. He is essentially a controller of a complex system and by opening many of a patient's own control loops he assumes responsibility for maintaining the patient's homeostasis. To be successful in this task he needs accurate and up-to-date data presented to him in the way he can best appreciate and use it to aid him in his control decisions.

Computers can aid the anaesthetist in planning complex procedures, in preanaesthetic evaluation, on-line in the operating room during anaesthesia, and in the recovery room period. They can help him with his statistics and his training. But the most important aid will be during the anaesthesia itself, for it is then that the anaesthetist has to make his most rapid and difficult decisions. The computer can help him by its ability to sense, store, and recall information, to calculate and analyse, to warn, predict, and control. All these abilities are only aids to the anaesthetist and cannot replace his skill and judgment.

Present computers and machines have only limited capabilities, but they are improving rapidly and in the future have the potential of serving the anaesthetist as a tireless and patient colleague with an excellent "head for figures"--but with limited judgment and no initiative.

Note:

Presented at the Annual Meeting, Canadian Anaesthetists' Society, May 13-16, 1968.