Florida Anesthesia Computer and Engineering Team
©
University of Florida, 1996
To develop software that works well with the hardware to accomplish a specific task requires the services of professionals known as computer programmers. Most programmers work in teams, with each person responsible for a specific aspect of the total project. Generally, programmers create software by using a step-by-step development process that starts with specifying the function of the program. Next, it must be determined how this is to be accomplished. Then that code is written in a particular programming language. Finally, the program is tested and debugged, and checked against the requirements.
Often the most difficult step in program development is "debugging" the software, which means finding problems in the program logic. Debugging is a difficult process, particularly in large programs without thorough and rigid test procedures. The term "bug" was first used in the early 1940s, when programmers looking for the cause of a mysterious malfunction in the huge Mark I computer discovered a moth in a vital electrical switch. Thereafter, programmers referred to this activity as debugging.
Programmers must work with clinicians when designing applications for computers in medicine. For example, it is relatively easy to write a program to keep track of blood pressure values on an anesthesia record. However, in order to make it truly clinically useful, the development of an integrated anesthesia record-keeper requires a coordinated effort between the programmer and the anesthesiologist.
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