Surgical Tray Assembly Using Historical Usage Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for assembling medical device trays are human-centric, leading to errors such as including unnecessary instruments, increasing waste and cost, and impacting patient care due to assembly delays and mistakes.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device that communicates with a computer system to facilitate tray assembly based on historical usage data, reducing the number of included devices and automating the process to minimize errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If medical support staff assemble trays in a predefined and fixed manner, then the tray assembly process is standardized and efficient, but the trays often include unneeded or unnecessary surgical instruments which increases waste and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static, fixed tray assembly process into a dynamic one by implementing a system that adapts tray composition based on real-time surgical data, historical usage patterns, and procedure-specific requirements. The system continuously learns from surgical outcomes and adjusts future tray assemblies accordingly, making the previously fixed process adaptable and responsive to actual surgical needs
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback loops where surgical outcomes, instrument usage data, and procedural results are collected and analyzed to improve future tray assemblies. This closed-loop system uses historical surgical data to refine and optimize tray composition, ensuring that only necessary instruments are included while reducing waste
2Reliability
If extra surgical instruments are included in trays to ensure completeness, then the risk of missing instruments is reduced, but the assembly time increases and errors become more likely
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating and pre-planning tray compositions based on surgical procedures, historical data, and predicted instrument needs. This advance preparation allows the system to have optimized tray lists ready before surgery begins, eliminating the need for time-consuming assembly decisions while ensuring completeness through data-driven selection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual, human-centric tray assembly process with an automated computational system that uses algorithms, machine learning models, and data analysis to determine instrument selection. This substitution of mechanical/manual processes with automated intelligent systems reduces assembly time while maintaining or improving reliability through consistent, error-free selection
3Reliability
If medical support staff thoroughly inspect surgical instruments for damage and quality, then patient safety is improved, but assembly time increases due to time pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by enabling automated instrument inspection capabilities where the computational system performs quality assessments, damage detection, and suitability verification without requiring extensive manual inspection. This automation allows thorough quality control to occur rapidly, maintaining patient safety standards while eliminating time pressure from the assembly process
4Adaptability or versatility
If trays are assembled with a comprehensive set of instruments to cover all possible scenarios, then adaptability to unexpected situations is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by creating a multi-functional platform that handles diverse surgical procedures, instrument types, and scenario variations through a single intelligent system. Rather than requiring separate specialized trays for each scenario, the system adapts its recommendations based on the specific procedure and predicted needs, providing versatile coverage without increasing physical tray complexity
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device that facilitates assembly of a tray of medical devices (such as a surgical instrument, a surgical screw, surgical supplies or a surgical machine) or a peel pack of medical devices. During operation, the electronic device may receive or obtain, from a computer system, information specifying medical devices to include in a tray of medical devices or a peel pack of medical devices based at least in part on historical usage of medical devices: in a type of medical procedure, for a type of patient and/or by a given medical provider. Then, the electronic device may provide an instruction to assemble the tray of medical devices or the peel pack of medical devices based at least in part on the information. Alternatively, the electronic device may automatically assemble the tray of medical devices or the peel pack of medical devices based at least in part on the information.