Concept of automatic pattern recognition of clinical deterioration. Clinicians integrate information to suspect specific diagnoses. Similarly, simple algorithms could be used to automatically identify specific vital sign patterns and suggest possible diagnoses. Examples of numerical patterns are presented in the right column, assuming that for each variable, 1 means “major decrease,” 2 means “decrease,” 3 means “stable,” 4 means “increase,” and 5 means “major increase.” The numerical pattern “333333” would mean all variables remain stable, whereas the pattern “433514” could suggest pneumonia-related acute respiratory failure. *If septic shock. **If pneumonia.