O.R. Vision
Improving the workflow within the operating room during a hip replacement surgery.
Surgeries can be very intensive and are extremely time-sensitive; anesthesia should not keep the patient under for longer than absolutely necessary, and having a body opened up should also be kept to a minimum. Though we perceive the operating room environment to be the pinnacle of professionalism, it copes with inefficiencies that slow the processes down like any other work environment. OR Vision helps the entire team follow what is going on in the operation and notifies the necessary members when they need to step in.
I worked on this project with a team of students for the course Advanced Embodiment Design, for the Industrial Design Engineering master programme Integrated Product Design. The project was issued by a company that produces medical equipment, instruments and prosthetics, and was a follow-up of a previous graduation project. We focused on just hip replacement surgery.
In researching the various problems to be solved in this project, the team was present in the operating room at two hip replacement surgeries. The team worked closely together with the hip replacement specialist surgeon of the Reinier de Graaf hospital in Delft. In talks with the surgeon and his team and observing them in action, it was discover that the main problem is the timing of the many team members that have a passive role,
Only the surgeon and the assistant-surgeon have a view on the operation, the nurses, anesthesiologist and radiologist do not. After a brief exploration we came to a concept that involved tracking the instruments being used. Using this information, the stage of the operation could be communicated to the rest of the team via screens already available in most operating rooms. The specialists needed at certain points in the operation can then be alerted of an upcoming task, improving their timing and the overall efficiency.
The best way to register which instrument is being used is a ´long range´ RFID reader. These need to be placed in close proximity to the operating table and need to be aimed at the operation going on. It was decided to use a clamping mechanism to attach the reader to a serum holder pole. Two designs were made: one for a 3D-printed prototype and one that was production-ready.
The final production design of the reader has a medial aesthetic to go along with the rest of the equipment present in an operating room. It includes a long-range RFID reader, which is aimed to only pick up the instruments being used, which have an embedded RFID tag. It is connected to regular screens, displaying the current phase of the process.
