What is Monitoring - Meaning and definition

The continuous oversight of an activity to assist in its supervision and to see that it proceeds according to plan.
Monitoring involves the specification of methods to measure activity, use of resources, and response to services against agreed criteria.

World Health Organization. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Glossary. 2009.

In medicine, monitoring is the observation of a disease, condition, or one or several medical parameters over time.

It can be performed by continuously measuring certain parameters by using a medical monitor (for example, by continuously measuring vital signs by a bedside monitor), and/or by repeatedly performing medical tests (such as, blood glucose monitoring with a glucose meter).
Transmitting data from a monitor to a distant monitoring station is known as telemetry or biotelemetry.

It can be classified by the target of interest, including:
- cardiac monitoring
- hemodynamic monitoring
- respiratory monitoring
- neurological monitoring
- blood glucose monitoring
- childbirth monitoring
- body temperature monitoring

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Internet. Accessed on June 14, 2016.

To cite

Monitoring. IAHPC Pallipedia. https://pallipedia.org/monitoring/. Accessed