safety, warnings, precautions, prohibitions
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© 2012 h/p/cosmos sports & medical gmbh [email protected] created 15.02.2012 printed 15.02.2012 page: 31 of 213
Picture 11: classification of a network or data network in categories A, B and C
Class „C“-network or data network:
All time-critic processes and applications for those a malfunction or interruption would lead to a critical situation
for the patient as in an intensive care network are categorized as class C. Such a network should not be
connected to the general hospital network, because such a connection might create uncontrollable risks. The
accessibility of such an isolated (floating) network has to be very high, interruptions must occur very seldom. For
such a network the manufacturer / deliverer is the only responsible, he has to define the specifications of the
network nodes to be used.
Note: In practice such an isolation of networks in hospitals can be realized only by very high technical effort or not
at all. Depending on the manufacturer the patient monitors in intensive care can also show x-ray images,
laboratory data and other patient related information; this requires a connection of the intensive care network and
the general hospital network to transfer data like x-ray images form the PACS. In this case the responsibility of
such networks is clearly transferred to the operator.
Class „B“ network or data network:
This category of networks or data networks includes all not time-critical applications or processes, which handle
therapeutic or diagnostic patient data. Such a network may be connected to another network like a hospital
network via a defined and controllable or save interface. The standards for such a network are high, so
interruptions shall last only for short times.
The specifications of such a network are either defined by the manufacturer or the system administrator defined
by the operator. As class B networks are usually radiologic networks, it is a problem to define the responsibility for
such a system when several manufacturers allocate different modules.
