Abstract: A fixed bed hydroprocessing system, and also a method for upgrading a pre-existing fixed bed hydroprocessing system, involves preliminarily upgrading a heavy oil feedstock in one or more slurry phase reactors using a colloidal or molecular catalyst and then further hydroprocessing the upgraded feedstock within one or more fixed bed reactors using a porous supported catalyst. The colloidal or molecular catalyst is formed by intimately mixing a catalyst precursor composition into a heavy oil feedstock and raising the temperature of the feedstock to above the decomposition temperature of the precursor composition to form the colloidal or molecular catalyst in situ. Asphaltene or other hydrocarbon molecules otherwise too large to diffuse into the pores of the fixed bed catalyst can be upgraded by the colloidal or molecular catalyst.

Abstract: A system and method for providing feedback to a patient caregiver is provided that receives information on a periodic basis, such as every hospital shift, performs a parametric analysis on the treatment given with known standards that are stored in a database, and generates a report that identifies whether the care that is being given is consistent or inconsistent with the guidelines. A source of the guidelines is provided so that a physician can consult with the source information, if desired. The patient data may be entered in by the caregiver, and the feedback may be provided to the caregiver, via a portable device, such as a mobile telephone or PDA (personal digital assistant).