Virtual OR Boundary Monitoring for Unauthorized Staff Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
The risk of unauthorized access to restricted areas in an operating room poses a significant threat to patient safety, equipment integrity, and surgical procedures, with human traffic being a major cause of surgical site infections.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that monitors healthcare professional movements and determines access authorization, sending notifications to unauthorized personnel approaching restricted areas, and dynamically adjusts virtual boundaries based on equipment position and surgical steps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If physical barriers and access control systems are implemented to prevent unauthorized access, then patient safety and sterile field protection are improved, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces physical barriers and manual access control mechanisms with a computer vision-based monitoring system. Cameras and image processing algorithms automatically detect unauthorized personnel and alert the surgical team, eliminating the need for physical restrictions while maintaining patient safety and sterile field protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides automated monitoring and notification without requiring manual intervention. The monitoring system independently tracks personnel movement, identifies unauthorized individuals, and generates alerts, allowing the surgical team to focus on the procedure while the system handles access control autonomously.
2Reliability
If continuous monitoring of all personnel is implemented, then unauthorized access detection is improved, but loss of time and device complexity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system focuses monitoring resources on critical areas such as the sterile field and restricted zones within the operating room. Rather than uniformly monitoring all spaces, the system concentrates detection capabilities where unauthorized access poses the greatest risk, improving detection efficiency while reducing processing burden.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes virtual boundaries and access rules for different zones in the operating room before surgery begins. These predefined parameters allow for rapid real-time evaluation of personnel movement without requiring complex on-the-fly decision-making, reducing processing time while maintaining detection accuracy.
Data Source
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AI summary
A computing system may determine a virtual boundary of a restricted access area in an operating room (OR). The computing system may identify a health care professional (HCP) in the OR and monitor a movement of the HCP. The computing system may determine an access authorization of the HCP. The computing system may determine whether the HCP is in a proximity to the virtual boundary area. If the computing system determines that the HCP is in a proximity to the virtual boundary area and the HCP is unauthorized to enter the virtual boundary area, the computing system may send a notification to the HCP. The notification may indicate that the HCP is unauthorized to enter the virtual boundary area. If the computing system determines that the HCP is authorized to enter the virtual boundary area, the computing system may allow the HCP to enter the virtual boundary area.