Integrated Surgical Workstation

During a surgical operation, despite the status of the patient and the OR workflow, the surgeon has to keep an overview of an increasing number of medical devices. Each device has an individual display and control panel, demanding a high amount of attention from the surgeon. The resulting high mental load contradicts the demand for usability of medical devices. In addition, a communication between the medical devices is prevented by incompatible interfaces and data formats. As a result, the exchange of information regarding the surgical procedure is not viable, but might offer potential for improving the surgical process.

Thus, in this project a surgical workstation is developed, in which medical devices from various manufactures can be integrated, using an open standardized communication interface. The future goal is to allow the operation of individual devices and functionalities via the centralized workstation. In addition, the workstation should display information from the devices and its parameters on a central monitor, allowing for fading in of information, when it is needed in the operation process. This way a central reference point is created for the surgeon and the OR personnel, in order to provide the required information for the OR workflow. In addition, this project takes into consideration the requirements for connecting medical devices of different manufactures (approval process, risk management and usability engineering, Human-Machine-Interaction) and the implementation of a common standard (IEEE 11073 SDC) for the communication of medical devices in the operation theatre. Moreover, innovative Human-Machine-Interfaces, like Gesture-, Foot-, Voice- or Tablet-control, Remote-Pointer, for the integrated surgical workstation are developed and examined.