1. Control Systems in Medical Applications
AS ICT
Control Systems in Medical Applications

2. Objectives Have an understanding of how organizations use ICT.
Be able to describe a number of uses, giving the hardware and software requirements
Be able to describe the applications that these uses can be put to.

3. The main use of computer control in hospitals is in life-support systems. Sensors attached to a patient monitor 
pulse
temperature
blood pressure
breathing rate
The readings are taken at regular intervals and used as input to a computer.If any of these readings goes outside acceptable levels an output signal sets off an alarm to alert the nursing staff.  

4. These systems may be used for
patients in intensive care (eg after operations)
prematurely born babies
The advantages of this system:
monitoring can be continuously done 24 hours a day
no chance of human errors due to eg tiredness
frees the nursing staff to carry out other duties
Disadvantages:
these systems are expensive

5. Why use microprocessors in medical applications?
Greater accuracy than a human
Lower running costs compared with a human
24/7 monitoring of patients (robots do not get tired)
Monitoring of many different systems at once
Very rapid response
Continuous process, no need for breaks
Can monitor several patients at once – nurses are freed up to do other things

6. Medical applications
Computer control used in two major medical applications:
Intensive care
Surgery
However, both still require human intervention, so we regard it as an open loop system

7. What is an open loop system?
The output does not automatically directly affect the input
Instead, the output is usually some sort of a signal (an alarm/flashing light etc) which alerts humans to the need for intervention

8. Open loop systems
Monitoring & Measurement rather than control

9. Closed loop systems
In a closed-loop control system, a sensor monitors the output (the vehicle's speed)
It feeds the data to a computer which continuously adjusts the control input (the throttle) as necessary to keep the control error to a minimum (that is, to maintain the desired speed).

10. Intensive care: Patients monitored with sensors
Blood pressure
Pulse rate
Body temperature
Computer is pre-set with normal range of values
Constantly compares data sent back by the sensors to those values
If any body-function data falls outside the pre-set values, an alarm sounds

11. Surgery
Robotic surgery using robotic arms & cameras inside the patient’s body
End effector: usually a scalpel
Surgeon controls robotic arms by using a console
When the surgeon moves her/his hands, the robot arms & cameras respond exactly to the moves they make
Surgeon is in complete control, but the work is more accurate
Less invasive
Smaller scale surgery
Quicker recovery time
Less occupation of hospital beds

12. Homework