The MODS (Multiple Organ Dysfunction Score) Score was developed in 1995 as a physiology based tool to describe organ dysfunction as an ICU outcome. A formal methodologic approach was used to employ
physiologic, rather than therapeutic variables. The authors wanted to minimize bias resulting from differing approaches to therapy, but also to emphasize the role of the scoring system as a descriptor of a pathophysiologic process, rather than of the clinician’s response to that process.