DOCTUS IV (CID 1574) is a modular monitor of physiologic parameters that has four types of modules in its current version: electrocardiographic (ECG) + breathing, two temperatures, oximetry and non-invasive pressure (PNI). It has all the visualization facilities, storage and communication required by the medical and paramedic personnel so that these can be located next to the sick persons' beds and that can be easily transported. It constitutes a flexible and open system, since it has interchangeable independent modules for the different physiologic parameters that can be supervised; for this reason, new modules for other vital signs will be added in the future. It fulfills the technical, ergonomic and safety requirements required for this type of equipment by the corresponding international norms. The information is graphically shown in a screen and with numeric data; there are also alarms (visual and audible) that are produced when the parameters values are out of their selected ranges, when an arrhythmia event is detected and for other abnormal conditions.

The information can be printed by means of an optional register, in order to be analyzed or filed afterwards. It can be controlled by software; monitoring, classification and storage of the measured parameters' tendencies.

This equipment has a specific plane keyboard to enter the information, as communication organ with the operator, a Super VGA graphic color display to visualize the signals and a high-resolution thermal register to print the reports.

From the electronic point of view, DOCTUS IV monitor is novel for the design and use of an architecture distributed with a main processor of 32 bits (Pentium) and several microcontrollers of RISC architecture that work in two levels. From the software's point of view, it was created a modular structure, using the technique of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) that facilitates the incorporation of the processing of the new physiologic parameters whose modules are added to the equipment.

DOCTUS IV is a part of the aid package of medical equipment requested by the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) for the national health net, 466 of which are already installed in more than 100 hospital centers of all the provinces of the country.

The most outstanding aspects are:

• Electronic design with high immunity to noise and high reliability in signal reception;
• Temperature measurement method;
• Method used in the software to determine the parameters to measure;
• Software structure.

All these aspects are credited in 7 publications, 2 of which are master's degree theses, 1 is published in Electronic, Automatic Engineering and Communications magazine in 1998 and 4 are accepted to be published in scientific magazines, one of them from Venezuela.