In computers, medical software is a significant branch of software engineering. Many medical therapeutic devices that monitor or control patients are predominantly controlled by software.
- Monitors: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, use software to interpret the sensor information and display it in a meaningful way on a monitor.
- Medication pumps: These devices are programmed to pump a certain amount of plasma, blood, saline solution, or other medication into a patient at a certain rate. The software provides the ability to control many aspects of treatment procedures.
- Analysis: Many devices, such as CAT scanners, measure raw data that is essentially meaningless to people. Software reinterprets this data to create images that doctors can read and understand.
- Expert Systems: A variety of expert systems have been created to indicate what should be done. These are less used than the other things just mentioned.
- Medical informatics: Software for the business and informational aspect of medicine.
- Therapy delivery: The software in implantable pacemakers and defibrillators provides fault-tolerant, real-time, mission-critical monitoring of cardiac rhythms and associated therapy delivery.
- Medical and healthcare educational software: Software used as an educational or study tool for healthcare professionals.