OPERATING THEATRE TECHNOLOGIES
10GBaseT. Naturally, with such heavy data traffic, the local IT team would manage this service and structure the network accordingly. In hospitals then, this means easier distribution of AV around the site, improved storing of information, better connectivity, and the use of standard IT switches (10 gig). Being able to deliver content from its source to a display that can be anything from an Internet livestream, to a conference room, to a local PC in an operating theatre, makes data more accessible than ever before – it literally is at your fingertips.
Integrated data services But what AVoIP, data collection, and distribution deliver goes even further, far beyond the sensory data of AV. System and machine health and usage, metrics from sensors… all this information can be collected, distributed, and stored on the same ICT infrastructure, and, of course, the Internet, paving the way for accessibility to vital information. Step away from the technical jargon, and what integrated AVoIP and Big Data deliver is a system whereby every surgeon, at any point in their career, can learn from the experience of any other, informing the way they operate, even while procedures are underway. It is the ultimate pooling of expertise, which could help to avoid the many needless deaths caused every year by medical error, reported to be one of the largest causes of death in richer countries. A recent student at Johns Hopkins University1
concluded that in the
USA alone, preventable medical errors cause 250,000 deaths every year, the equivalent of nearly 10 jumbo jets crashing each week.
Interoperability
The free sharing of data is, however, not without issues, one of which is interoperability – the ability of computer systems or software to exchange and make use of information. The big endoscopic players, for example, design in proprietary control. This makes it impossible to mix and match and plug
Surgery under way at KCMC in Tanzania.
and play and data share between devices. Putting to one side for the moment the dubious arguments over system testing, verification, and safety, if I like one company’s light source, but want to use it with another company’s camera, why can’t I? I can plug my Samsung TV into my TiVo box and my son’s Xbox, and listen to the audio on my Bang & Olufsen sound system, and use any number of aftermarket controllers. This is because of the imposition of industry standards that prevail in the consumer market, something completely missing from the integrated operating theatre business. The main argument against
interoperability is based on safety, whole system testing, and verification etc. But should this really extend to devices like recorders and displays? Is it really logical that only the display supplied by the manufacturer should be used with its branded camera, and what is wrong with making its data available, as long as it is controlled?
Bringing AVoIP to the operating theatre
Alliances like the SDVoE (Software Defined Video of Ethernet) are now being formed, promoting AVoIP by bringing leading companies in the space together around a standardised hardware and
software platform that uses industry standards such as IP to exchange data. Developing a new private standard from the ground up is expensive, will never be as good, and will limit the market to a loyal customer base. Browser technology also broadens the consumer choice with the option to use off-the-shelf products such as tablets and mobile phones – BYOI (Bring Your Own Interface).
Once integrated, theatre systems can incorporate data switches at their heart, and use standard data protocols for control and information sharing. The extension and connection of all theatres in the world is assured.
To bring Industry 4.0 to the operating rooms and healthcare institutions, my message for surgeons is to get their theatres connected, and to put pressure on manufacturers to make their systems non-proprietary – open architecture and industry standards are the answer.
‘Ground-breaking’ Japanese treatment At the Tokyo Women’s Medical University-Waseda University Joint Institution for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (TWIns), surgeons recently treated a patient with ‘essential tremor’, a neurological condition that causes involuntary shaking. What made this
October 2019 Health Estate Journal 33
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