Surgical Hub Response Adjustment Using Procedure Progress Awareness

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Solution Overview

Problem

Medical facilities face challenges in implementing new surgical technologies due to patient safety concerns and a reluctance to deviate from traditional practices, leading to a lack of interconnectedness among medical systems and facilities, which hinders the sharing of knowledge and improved patient care practices.

Innovation Solution

The development of a computer-implemented interactive surgical system that includes surgical hubs connected to a cloud-based system, enabling communication and data sharing between various surgical devices and systems, and providing situational awareness to optimize surgical procedures and instrument performance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If surgical facilities maintain traditional practices and avoid new technologies, then patient safety is preserved through proven methods, but surgical efficiency and knowledge sharing are hindered

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepatient safetyVSAvoidsurgical efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The surgical hub collects real-time data from multiple surgical devices and provides feedback to surgeons and facilities. This feedback mechanism enables learning from both successful and unsuccessful procedures across different facilities, allowing traditional practices to be maintained while incorporating data-driven improvements that enhance safety and efficiency without requiring abrupt technological transitions

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The surgical hub acts as an intermediary between traditional surgical practices and new technologies. It integrates data from various surgical devices and facilities, processing and analyzing information to provide actionable insights that bridge the gap between proven traditional methods and emerging technologies, enabling gradual adoption while maintaining safety standards

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If surgical facilities interconnect and share data through cloud-based systems, then knowledge sharing and improved patient care practices are enabled, but system complexity and data security concerns increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveknowledge sharingVSAvoidsystem interconnectedness
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The surgical hub provides multiple functions including data collection, real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and communication between facilities. This multi-functional platform consolidates various interconnected systems into a single universal interface, reducing the perceived complexity while enabling comprehensive knowledge sharing and data exchange across surgical facilities

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The surgical hub serves as an intermediary layer between individual surgical devices and the cloud-based network. It aggregates and processes data locally before transmitting to the cloud, simplifying the connection complexity for individual facilities while enabling comprehensive knowledge sharing through centralized data pooling and analysis

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If real-time data collection and analysis are implemented, then surgical procedures are optimized and patient outcomes improve, but data processing requirements and system resource consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesurgical procedure optimizationVSAvoiddata processing energy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments data processing into multiple levels: real-time monitoring at the device level, intermediate analysis at the surgical hub level, and comprehensive analytics at the cloud level. This segmentation allows critical real-time optimizations to occur with minimal energy consumption at each level, while distributing the heavier processing loads across the network infrastructure

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary data filtering and preprocessing at the surgical hub before transmitting to the cloud, and conducts preliminary analytics on historical data to establish baselines. This preliminary action reduces the volume and complexity of data requiring intensive real-time processing during surgical procedures, thereby reducing energy consumption while maintaining optimization capabilities

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3506269B1Surgical HUB and modular device response adjustment based on situational awareness
Publication Date: 2024.07.24 ETHICON INC
  • EP3506269B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3506269B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3506269B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A surgical system for use in a surgical procedure is disclosed. The surgical system includes a modular device, at least one data source, and a surgical hub configured to communicably couple to the at least one data source and the modular device. The surgical hub comprises a control circuit configured to receive data from the at least one data source. The data is determinative of a progress status the surgical procedure. The control circuit is further configured to adjust a response to a sensed parameter based on the progress status.