Simulation of measurement devices in medical network

Testing a safety critical system environment such as Patient Monitoring Systems is very time consuming and very expensive due to the need for extensive and repetitive manual testing. "Testing is a major cost factor in software development" [38]. Today, this cost can be reduced by implementing clever test strategies that includes developing tools that will reduce the manual testing effort and enable test automation. In order for the tool development and automation to succeed, it is important to identify the bottlenecks with the current way of testing and focus on underlying problems in testing for achieving the largest return of investment. During the verification phase of Carescape Bx50 Patient monitors, Gases and Spirometry have been recognized as one of the bottlenecks and identified as the most time consuming parameters to test. The need for the use of Anaesthesia machines and challenges such test setup adds to testing, made Gases and Spirometry one of the best candidates for parameter simulation. In this thesis, the requirements of the Gas Module Simulator were identified and possible implementation strategies have been studied. The work has been concluded by analysing the results and choosing the implementation strategy for the Gas Module Simulator. The most commonly used methods though out this thesis work were interviews and observations. Additional future work will be carried out by implementing the Gas Module Simulator. This work is expected to reduce manual testing and give the opportunity to automate Gases and Spirometry tests. The methods and experience gained with this thesis work can be applied to future parameter simulations