The hospital operating room (OR) is an environment that requires up-to-the-minute, reliable information on a patient's state. Data is usually provided by a heterogeneous mixture of independent monitors that, due to their isolated nature, give complex and sometimes erroneous presentations of a patient's state. This complex presentation introduces the possibility of operating room personnel overlooking data items that indicate certain pending patient states, such as cardiac arrest. A computer based system that collects the various monitor data, summarizes its content, and provides concise discourse on a patient's state (including potential life threatening situations), would be beneficial.