Automating Anesthesia For Medically Induced Comas

This article talks about how anesthesia could potientally be administered via automated machines instead of manually by anesthesiologists.

A team from the Massachusetts General Hospital  made some changes to current equipment so that the anesthesia could be administered based on EEG patterns and brain activity in order to keep the patient in an induced coma. This has been tested on rats and was found to give perfect amounts of anesthesia. The team wants to get it approved to test on patients.

The research is relevant because it is one of the first fully automated systems where the results show both precision and control in administering anesthesia.

Medically induced comas require brain activity to be at the correct level at all times or patients would be in danger. This requires personnel to monitor the patients for days to ensure that patients get the correct dosage; this research is relevant because then the people needed for these jobs would be free to do other jobs like tend to surgeries and such.

Below is the link to the article:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/automating-anesthesia-for-medically-induced-comas