A significant change in the clinical engineering scene has occurred in recent years that has replaced qualitative and descriptive efforts by a quantitative biomedical science. In part, this change has been brought about by the advancement in the state-of-the-art of utilizing digital electronic computer systems calleddistributed data processing (DDP)systems. This paper discusses several commercially successful DDP systems presently available to the clinical engineer. A specialized form of distributed systems in which the processors communicate vialocal area network (LAN)is discussed. It promises an exciting opportunity for interconnecting complex electronic equipment in a large hospital.