ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the design of alarm systems, which we de ne as systems for indicating the presence of (generally) temporary, potentially dangerous conditions in real time. This distinguishes alarms from warnings, which are not real time and which tend to refer to permanent rather than temporary conditions, and from other displays and indicators, which do not necessarily refer to dangerous conditions. We use the term alarm systems rather than simply alarms to make it clear that we are referring not just to the signal that an alarm system generates but rather to the “parts of medical … equipment … that detect alarm conditions and … generate alarm signals” (International Electrotechnical Commission [IEC], 2004).
