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Hospitals are now replacing antiquated surgical spaces with the new operating suites to improve outpatient surgery support, minimally invasive techniques, and digital technological innovations.
Fremont, CA: Considering the rapid pace of technological innovation in surgery, hospitals can now no longer adhere to a rigid design plan for operating suites. ORs must be sized appropriately to accommodate a wide range of current and future technologies that can quickly adapt to shifts in treatment paradigms and service line strategy and is configured to reflect an institution’s requirements. The medical device companies must fundamentally change their business models to stay viable in the market by expanding their interest from physical capital medical devices into digital solutions that surround those physical devices.
The next-generation devices contribute to the rise of the “digital operating room,” which is focused on integrating the images, information, and workflow available in the hospital and the operating theater. These integrations can distribute and record data while adding intelligence.
Additionally, smart operating room components is needed that can enable surgeons to perform surgical procedures effectively. The biggest hurdle for current market participants is dealing with product differentiation. Furthermore, innovations and adoptions are taking place at a quicker pace than before. A simple data management tool, when integrated with the existing infrastructure, provides instrumental information.
The notion of the digital operating room is variable. Whereas digital operating rooms are being incorporated in the hospitals rapidly, the clinical validation of an improved quality of surgery is limited. The proven and expected usefulness of image distribution in one OR, and outside the OR, of integrating information, of intelligence, and image and video registration is reviewed with the perspective of quality and safety of the surgery. It is predicted that the digital OR will contribute to the learning, teaching, and the quality of surgery. Notably, the introduction of augmented or artificial intelligence (AI) will be a significant step forward.
The field of surgery is evolving rapidly, and technological advances are helping it be more efficient and effective and improve patient outcomes. While surgery might never be fully automated, robots will be smarter and more interactive in the future, bringing information to surgeons during surgery. Of course, many technologies are still in the developing stage, and others have yet to be widely embraced or thoroughly evaluated for safety and cost-effectiveness.
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