The Intensive Care Unit caters for critically ill patients and is therefore characterised by numerable monitoring devices that measure patient vital signs. These devices typically implement limit alarms that are activated when a given physiological parameter exceeds a pre-specified threshold value. Unfortunately such monitoring equipment is susceptible to a high false alarm rate. As a consequence there is a tendency for caregivers to mute the alarms in order to reduce the level of unnecessary distraction, thereby increasing the risk that they may miss critical information. Advances in clinical monitoring of patient physiology have consisted mainly of development of new clinical measurements or improvements in the processing of existing measurements. An alternative area of improvement, which has received increased interest in recent years, is that of automated signal interpretation. This involves capturing patient physiological data electronically and then performing sophisticated analysis thus enabling predictions to be made about the evolution of patient state. This includes generating advance warnings of impending threshold violations in specific physiological parameters, or the possible presence of a slowly developing and possibly fatal condition, which needs to be treated in its early stages to promote a significant chance of survival for the patient. The term "Predictive Alarm Systems" has been applied to systems, which perform automated signal interpretation. Two such systems have been developed in collaboration with the ICU, Frimley Park hospital. The first of these generates advance warnings of threshold violations, whilst the latter provides an indication of the presence of Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS), a condition which is a precursor to Sepsis, a major cause of mortality within ICUs worldwide.  FOR FURTHER DESCRIPTION SEE UNDER 'DEVELOPMENT PLAN'