  Over the past decade, there has been an unprecedented international focus on
improved quality and availability of medical care, which has reignited interest
in clinical automation and drawn researchers toward novel solutions in the
field of physiological closed-loop control systems (PCLCs). Today,
multidisciplinary groups of expert scientists, engineers, clinicians,
mathematicians, and policy-makers are combining their knowledge and experience
to develop both the next generation of PCLC-based medical equipment and a
collaborative commercial/academic infrastructure to support this rapidly
expanding frontier. In the following article, we provide a robust introduction
to the various aspects of this growing field motivated by the recent and
ongoing work supporting two leading technologies: the artificial pancreas (AP)
and automated anesthesia. Following a brief high-level overview of the main
concepts in automated therapy and some relevant tools from systems and control
theory, we explore -- separately -- the developments, challenges,
state-of-the-art, and probable directions for AP and automated anesthesia
systems. We then close the review with a consideration of the common lessons
gleaned from these ventures and the implications they present for future
investigations and adjacent research.
