Medical equipment alarms: the need, the standards, the evidence: a view in the theatre

One of the great dangers in the present operating room is that a multitude of pieces of equipment are in use, controlled by a variety of responsible personnel, and all probably with their own individual equipment monitoring and alarm systems. This dilemma is now recognised in the international organisations for standardising medical equipment, and the recent formation of a combined ISO and IEC Joint Working Group is making significant progress in resolving at least some of the problems. We need agreement on the ranking of alarm displays by a series of priorities, for example high, medium and, low. We need then to allocate a common set of display criteria-whether these are visual, auditory or by some other means. It is important to identify the different systems to be monitored and whether they need true alarm indicators or if only warning signals are required