Embodiments of the present invention include a system and method for monitoring the ventilation support provided by a ventilator (20) that is supplying a breathing gas to a patient (p) via a breathing circuit (22) that is in fluid communication with the lungs of the patient (p). The ventilator (20) has a plurality of selectable ventilator setting controls (30) governing the supply of ventilation from the ventilator (20), each setting control (30) selectable to a level setting. The ventilator support monitor system (10) preferably receives at least one ventilator setting parameter signal (42), each ventilator setting parameter signal (42) indicative of the level settings of one ventilator setting control (30), monitors a plurality of sensors (52-58), each sensor (52-58) producing an output signal (51) indicative of a measured ventilation support parameter, to determine the sufficiency of the ventilation support received by the patient (p), and determines the desired level settings of the ventilator setting controls (30) in response to the received ventilator setting parameter signal (42) and the output signals (51). The ventilator support monitor system (10) preferably utilizes a trainable neural network (82) to determine the desired level settings of the ventilator setting controls (30).