How medtech is delivering modernisation to the operating theatre

Jahn Otto Andersen, CTO at HoloCare, explores some of the most significant developments in surgical medical technology. 

The operating theatre is a critical part of hospital and surgical care, requiring precision, efficiency, and huge skill to ensure successful outcomes for patients. As a result, surgery is not only one of the highest risk, highest pressure environments in a hospital, it is also one of the most expensive.

According to the British Medical Journal, operating theatres cost, on average, £1200 per hour to run, representing one of the biggest opportunities for cost-saving in a hospital. In fact, it has been calculated that “the average trust has an opportunity to save £7 million a year in efficiency savings by running a ‘productive theatre.’” Modernising surgery therefore is not just a patient safety problem, it’s a financial one too. 

Despite the obvious challenges and opportunities, many of the tools, practices and procedures of surgical teams have been slow to change, exacerbating elective care backlogs and stalling improvements to patient outcomes. Outdated equipment and processes in the operating theatre not only impact patient safety but increase inefficiencies – piling stress onto already overstretched surgeons and healthcare professionals. 

However, a new cohort of medtech companies are rising to the challenge. Recent leaps forward in medtech innovation, as well as an increased appetite for novel technologies, are helping to bring surgeries and surgical planning into 2023: 

Holographic surgery

The rise of mixed and augmented reality technology has ushered in a new wave of medtech innovations, which have impacted the way that surgical teams train, prepare and collaborate. 

HoloCare’s holographic tech provides surgical teams with the knowledge to visualise organs, prior to surgery. Developed by clinicians, the software converts medical images – such as CT or MRI – into 3D holograms, providing surgeons with a more spatial anatomical view of a patient’s organs. Moving, rotating, and expanding these holograms allows surgeons to see the organ from any angle, supporting them to develop 3D surgical plans.

The benefits of pre-surgery holograms are plentiful. By reducing uncertainties among clinicians and expediting high-risk surgical decisions, the tech could enhance patient safety, minimise preventable complications, and reduce the time spent in expensive surgical planning meetings and procedures. Additionally, mixed reality enables medical experts from around the world to virtually collaborate, ensuring that every hospital can benefit from specialist knowledge. The immersive nature of holograms also allows surgeons to practice complex surgical procedures before stepping into the operating room, increasing confidence, and leading to more precise and efficient operations.

Vascular surgery tech

Aneurysms are often treated by insertion of a stent into a patient’s blood vessel. However, no two patients or stent devices are the same, which makes selecting the right stent for a patient’s anatomy a considerable challenge. As a result, 25% of all stenting surgeries are currently unsuccessful. 

Oxford Heartbeat’s algorithm-powered 3D modelling helps surgeons fit stents with more precision. Their technology PreSize Neurovascular converts medical scans into a 3D model of a patient’s heart and arteries, which supports the planning of neurovascular stent surgeries. The tech then allows surgeons to virtually test different stents in their library of digital twins, simulating their deployment and predicting how they perform before even starting the procedure. Their tech helps clinical teams select the most optimal device for the individual patient, improving the accuracy and effectiveness of an operation.

In addition to improving patient outcomes, 3D pre-surgical modelling reduces the need for prolonged X-raying during a surgical procedure, which can increase exposure of patients and surgical staff to radiation. Thus, lowering the risk of post-procedure complications – such as re-narrowing of the artery or stent migration – which can lead to further surgery, and with it increased costs.

Tracking surgical equipment

In surgery, every second counts, and in the UK, surgical delays and cancellations cost the NHS up to £413 million annually. Of these delays, 58% are due to missing or malfunctioning surgical instruments.

Scalpel is tackling this challenge head on, with its computer vision and AI platform which tracks surgical equipment before, during and after operations. Hundreds of surgical instruments are used in an operation, and poor inventory management, as well as manual errors in counting or handling, can result in lost or broken equipment, with a single broken instrument accounting for seven minutes of lost surgery time. 

Keeping track of equipment is important for another reason too: knowing where all instruments, at any given moment, is vital so that surgeon’s performing operations can access the exact instrument that they need at any given moment. Preventing surgical instrument retention – when instruments are “left behind” inside the person being operated on – is also important. Without med tech interventions, this occurs in one in 5,500 operations. Tracking instruments in real-time prevents this from happening, improving patient safety – in a Mayo Clinic study, using instrument counting technology led to a 486% improvement in retained surgical objects – and saving hospitals time and money.

Virtual reality surgical training

Virtual and augmented reality surgery is now a new reality. Adopted by many operating rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic, VR tech is enabling surgeons to operate and train on patients in virtual reality.

ImmersiveTouch’s immersive VR platform offers surgeons an immersive environment in which they can rehearse and train for complex surgeries. Using a VR headset, surgeons are able to practice operations on a “virtual cadaver”, which not only allows them to visualise a surgery in 3-dimensions but enables the surgeon to feel like they are operating on a real body – with haptics providing sensory feedback and touch for life-like surgical simulation. 

With global healthcare systems overstretched, med tech innovations have the power to reduce pressures on surgeons, while improving patient safety, and supporting the training of the next generation of clinicians. As more medtech innovations come to the fore, and more are integrated into clinical practice, we are ushering in a new era of the modern-day operating theatre.