A patient monitor or medical monitor or display, is an electronic medical device that measures a patient's vital signs and displays the data so obtained, which may or may not be transmitted on a monitoring network. Physiological data are displayed continuously on a CRT or LCD screen as data channels along the time axis, They may be accompanied by numerical readouts of computed parameters on the original data, such as maximum, minimum and average values, pulse and respiratory frequencies, and so on.
In critical care units of hospitals, bedside units allow continuous monitoring of a patient, with medical staff being continuously informed of the changes in general condition of a patient. Some monitors can even warn of pending fatal cardiac conditions before visible signs are noticeable to clinical staff, such as atrial fibrillation or premature ventricular contraction (PVC).
