The first steps to introduce feedback control in anesthesia were undertaken more than ten years ago. The project encompasses all control system aspects, namely

Automated Control of Anaesthesia was successfully tested during surgery on more than 200 patients and 650 hours.

The successful application of our ideas is made possible by the close cooperation with: the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University Hospital in Berne (Inselspital), where volunteers are enrolled for model identification and controllers are validated in clinical studies; Dräger, which enables us to use the most advanced technologies in anaesthesia; Sentec, which supports us with the latest noninvasive blood gas monitoring devices.

In April 2005, the Anaesthesia Control Group, together with the partners in Bern and the University Hospital of Gent (Belgium), organized the workshop "Advanced Modeling and Control in Anesthesia", collecting 100 participants from all over the world. International experts on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling and control evaluated the current state of the art and developed a vision for future applications of such methods in clinical practice.