Vital signs monitors provide critical information about the body's most basic functions: blood pressure, body temperature, pulse rate, and respiration rate (or respiratory cycle). These medical instruments can help identify the existence of an acute medical problem or mark the state of a chronic disease. Vital signs monitors can also rapidly quantify the magnitude of an illness and how well the body is coping with the resulting physiological stress. Unlike multi-parameter monitors, most vital signs monitors are used for spot checks of patient vital signs and usually lack features such as trend recording and networking capability. However, some modern vital signs monitors are starting to include these features - blurring the line between vital signs and multi-parameter monitors. Highly efficient and reliable vital signs monitors help physicians to act decisively in providing targeted care to patients. MED distinguishes vital signs from multi-parameter with the ecg parameter, with the later including this feature.