title: Assessment of cardiotocographs.
abstract: In recent years advances in medical electronic equipment for monitoring, diagnosis and treatment of patients have led to a large increase in the number and variety of instrumentation available to the medical profession. There is a considerable amount of duplication of equipment and in the absence of readily available information buyers are unlikely to make informed decisions about the ideal instrument for their particular circumstances. One method of increasing the users' awareness is a comparative, independent assessment of equipment, with the results disseminated to the interested parties. This paper describes the essential qualities of cardiotocographs: how they are assessed as part of the UK Department of Health's evaluation programme and the measures to inform users of the latest evaluation information.
authors.affiliation: Bio-Medical Technology Group, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Genevier
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Woodhouse
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kirk
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Symonds
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Steer
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Beard
mesh_terms: D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D006113:United Kingdom