Digital integration is transforming the operating room by creating seamless connections between data, insights and actions. Robotic surgery platforms are a great example of this in action.
These tools have evolved over the past 25 years from operating room equipment to an integrated part of the hospital ecosystem.
During a virtual featured session sponsored by Intuitive as part of Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting in May, Brian Miller, PhD, Intuitive's chief digital officer, discussed how the integration of robotic platform data with health IT system information is enabling healthcare organizations to directly measure the influence of technology on patient care.
Five insights from the presentation:
1. Imaging, computer vision and artificial intelligence technologies can reduce complications during robotic-assisted surgery. Intuitive has seamlessly integrated imaging and computer vision technologies into its robotic surgery platforms to support clinicians. AI also serves up real-time decision support during procedures. "This decreases surgical complications and delivers better patient outcomes," Dr. Miller said. "As a result, surgeons are in a stronger position to differentiate and build their programs."
2. Digital integration across all phases of a surgical procedure leads to better outcomes. A kidney cancer patient's journey, for example, begins with a preoperative scan to determine if a tumor exists and where it's located. If surgery is the best treatment option, surgeons can use the same CT scan to make critical decisions about the procedure. Through segmentation and 3D reconstruction enabled by machine learning, the scan can be turned into a digital model that visualizes the tumor's location and size. This model can influence planned surgical approaches and rule out radical procedures with long-term, negative implications for patient outcomes and quality of life.
On the day of surgery, the same 3D scan can be projected into the surgical field to help the surgeon efficiently locate and remove the tumor. "After the procedure is complete, the surgeon can review the details with the My Intuitive app and compare them to similar procedures," Dr. Miller said. "With this information, clinicians can drive improvements in operating technique, workflows and choreography."
3. Data insights inform personalized learning journeys for clinicians. The My Intuitive app is a single point of access for surgeons and it makes surgery data discoverable and actionable. My Intuitive captures surgeons' ergonomic preferences, timelines for cases and instruments used. It connects surgeons with the Intuitive Learning cloud-based platform, which supports personalized learning plans and virtual reality training modules.
4. Robotic platform information in combination with hospital-collected data can improve clinical, operational and economic performance. Health systems can use these insights to drive population health management with consistent operational metrics. In addition, data-driven summaries at the end of procedures highlight performance information for benchmarking.
5. Choosing the right technology partners is essential when implementing a digital healthcare strategy. Intuitive is committed to applying technology to enhance robotic surgery. Its portfolio of systems, learning and services helps healthcare organizations surface valuable insights. Through collaboration and innovation, Intuitive strives to make data discoverable. The ultimate goal is to help surgeons deliver minimally invasive, life-enhancing care for all patients.
To view this session on-demand, click here. For more content, visit our Robotics Content Hub.