Addressing Issues Associated with Medical Imaging
Surgery is about life and death. The surgeon needs to stay focused during surgery and also retrieve the various prior physiological images and records of the patient from time to time for intra-operative reference. Despite the variety of imaging equipment available at the hospital, it is not integrated, which is confusing to an operating surgeon for whom a high level of focus of attention is required.
Cheng Hsin General Hospital, with the OR image integration system, the AVAS image streaming solution of Advantech, adopted recently, has been able to integrate images needed throughout surgery. The smart and intuitive interface design greatly enhances OR efficiency. Meanwhile, by utilizing the fiber-optic technology, images may be sent in real time during surgery to facilitate surgical consultation and remote teaching.
Excessive Medical Images Disfavor Surgical Efficiency
Cheng Hsin General Hospital, located in Beitou, is one of the leaders in introducing e-medicine and smart systems in Taiwan. The OR has also been prioritized at the hospital for applying information technology. At present, the OR information system of Cheng Hsin General Hospital has been integrated with the HIS. The various image data needed during surgery can be provided to the operating surgeon quickly; it favors a quick and smooth surgical procedure.
Given the advancement in modern medical technology and the need to retrieve during surgery the excessive physiological images having accumulated since initial visits of patients, it is either that multiple monitors are set up in the OR or an assisting nurse is needed to help shift the images all the time. With the former, the surgeon has to constantly raise his/her head or turn around to watch the images while with the latter, the surgeon must wait for the system to shift to the needed image. Neither is conductive to surgical efficiency. Therefore, Cheng Hsin General Hospital is deeply in need of a smart medical system that can integrate images in the OR.
Dr. Wen-Shin Song, the chief physician at the Department of Neurosurgery of Cheng Hsin General Hospital, indicates that as the sources of medical images increase each day, the hospital needs a platform that is able to present images from various types of instruments and equipment during surgery and to integrate all images on the same monitor. In addition, images shown on the monitor have to be instantaneous, non-distorted, and of high resolution. The operator’s interface must also be personalized and intuitive and allows the selection of a single important image or multiple images during surgery in order to facilitate real-time control of the progress by the operating surgeon and staff in the OR for enhanced surgical efficiency.
Image Integration + Interface Optimization Advantech AVAS Comprehensively Enhances Surgical Efficiency
Advantech worked with the system integration service provider Cypress Technology Co.,Ltd. and designed an OR image integration system that adopts the AVAS image streaming solution of Advantech. The system is configured with the Full HD and the 4K cameras. The 4K camera, in particular, is set up on the cantilever. The filming angle may be dragged and adjusted to meet the needs in the field. Images taken through these two cameras will all be sent to the system’s monitor.
Besides the captured images, the monitor is integrated with the HIS system, too, to include also the various types of related image data such as radiographs and CT scan images that are placed in the field for sources of images on the monitor. The user only has to touch and drag the source of image from the field to the main screen and the real-time non-distorted streaming will show. In addition, the main screen may be divided into multiple combinations, such as a single screen, dual-screen, qua-split screen, or one main and three auxiliary screens, which are subject to selection and may be switched over.
This personalized intuitive design addresses the OR issues of complexity and disorder associated with images in the past.
Cypress Technology in charge of the current system integration takes advantage of Advantech’s AVAS to realize the integration of physiological images of patients despite the format. There is more and more medical equipment available now. The formats of images captured by different equipment, such as the endoscope and X-ray, however, differ. Cypress Technology is able to address this issue through software design and enable simultaneous presentation of different medical images on a single platform.
In addition, to meet the needs of Cheng Hsin General Hospital, this system is equipped with the fiber-optic transmission feature, which may be used during remote teaching and consultation. Unlike OR images in the past that tended to experience distortion and delay during external transmission, Cypress Technology updated the system at Cheng Hsin General Hospital so that real-time and non-distorted images under high resolution may be ensured. Meanwhile, bilateral voice-based interactions can take place inside and outside the OR so that undesirable communication does not occur due to delay.
Smart Design Brings about Excellent Experience
Attending Physician Meng-Ting Wu at Cheng Hsin General Hospital indicates that instruments and equipment were separate from each other in the OR in the past. The surgeon and the clinical nurse(s) had to constantly move the instruments and equipment as required by the operating surgeon during surgery so that the screen is close to the surgical table. Even if there was an external monitor, the surgeon had to look for the correct screen. These movements, however, undermined the success rate and efficiency of surgery when a high level of focus of attention over extended time was needed. The feature of Advantech’s AVAS to highly integrate images is extremely helpful during surgery.
Clinical Nurse Jin-Yu Lu, who is responsible for assisting surgeons during surgery at Cheng Hsin General Hospital, indicates that the smart intuitive operator’s interface of AVAS enables him to quickly respond to a surgeon’s demand and is conducive to the accuracy and efficiency of surgery. He points out the fact that switching back and forth was needed with equipment in the past in order to find the required screen.
AVAS places all image sources in the same field. The operator only needs to touch and drag one to show the correct image. The simultaneous options available for a single screen and multiple split screen also enable the surgeon to keep track of the required image data precisely to make the surgery more precise in the fastest and the most effective way. It also reduces the workload at the same time.
The current OR image integration system with the Advantech’s AVAS at the core is of the mobile design. The server, the monitor, and the cameras are configured on the same mobile device. Surgeons and nurses can adjust the orientation and angle reflective of their needs. Such equipment can also be adopted in small-to-medium-sized hospitals where resources are limited and it is impossible to configure large fixed imaging equipment to easily and quickly build an OR image system and to further enhance the quality and efficiency of surgery.