Operating Room Warming Pad Integration to Reduce Clutter
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern healthcare environments face increasing medical errors due to complex organizational structures, with infrastructural risks (OI risks) often overlooked and not adequately addressed, leading to inefficiencies and patient safety issues.
Innovation Solution
An integrated system for operating rooms is developed, incorporating an integrated lighting and air plenum, patient warming system, and unified control system to reduce clutter, enhance safety, and standardize user interfaces, addressing infrastructural risks through modular design and wireless control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate systems (lighting, air handling, patient warming) are installed in operating rooms, then each system can perform its specific function, but the overall system complexity increases and clutter accumulates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate systems (lighting, air handling, patient warming) into a single integrated operating room system. The housing contains lighting assemblies, air handling components with HEPA filters, and patient warming panels, all controlled through a unified control system. This merging reduces the number of separate devices in the room while maintaining all necessary functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated system performs multiple functions simultaneously: providing surgical lighting, controlling air flow and filtration, warming patients, and monitoring environmental parameters. The single device serves as a universal platform that replaces multiple specialized equipment, reducing clutter while enhancing functional versatility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate control interfaces are used for different operating room systems, then each system can be controlled independently, but the ease of operation decreases due to multiple interfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The control system integrates multiple control functions into a single unified interface. The processor receives inputs from various sensors (light sensors, temperature sensors, air flow sensors) and controls multiple outputs (lighting intensity, air handler operation, heating elements) through one centralized control mechanism, eliminating the need for multiple separate controls.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified control interface serves multiple purposes: it controls lighting, manages air handling, regulates patient warming, and monitors environmental conditions. This single multi-functional control system replaces multiple specialized controls, making operation simpler while maintaining independent control capability for each function.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional separate systems are used in operating rooms, then installation is straightforward for each individual system, but infrastructural risks increase due to lack of integration
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated system combines multiple functions into a single coordinated unit with unified control logic. The processor coordinates lighting, air handling, and patient warming functions together, enabling the system to respond comprehensively to surgical needs and environmental conditions, thereby reducing infrastructural risks associated with uncoordinated separate systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively mitigates infrastructural risks, improving patient safety, reducing medical errors, and increasing operational efficiency by eliminating clutter and standardizing component control, thereby enhancing the surgical environment.
Implementation Method 1
a heating element layer (148) coupled to the foam insulation layer (144), the heating element layer (148) comprising a heater power connector (146)
Implementation Method 2
a foam insulation layer (144) for contacting a surgical table
Data Source
AI summary
A patient warming system for stabilizing and/or heating and cooling a patient includes a plurality of solid-surface sections arranged for attachment to a surgical table and a warming pad layer comprising a plurality of warming pads configured for removable connection to the plurality of solid-surface sections. At least one of the plurality of solid-surface sections includes a power connector for connection to an external power source. Each warming pad of the plurality of warming pads includes a foam insulation layer, a distributed heating element layer having a warming-pad power connection for connection to the power connector, an isothermal layer, and a flexible waterproof layer. Power supplied to the warming-pad power connection of the distributed heating element layer of the respective warming pad can be used to provide a user-selected uniform temperature over the surface of the flexible waterproof layer in order to prevent hot spots.