Wireless Surgical Device Pairing With Situational Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing surgical systems face challenges in efficiently pairing and managing multiple devices within a sterile surgical field while maintaining sterility and ensuring optimal device performance based on situational awareness of the surgical procedure.
Innovation Solution
A surgical hub system that integrates modular components for energy application, smoke evacuation, and data management, along with situational awareness capabilities to infer procedural context and control devices optimally, and wireless communication for device pairing and data transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple surgical devices are connected via wired network cables, then reliable data transmission is achieved, but device entanglement and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical wired connections with wireless communication technology. Surgical devices communicate data through wireless signals instead of physical cables, eliminating the mechanical entanglement of cables while maintaining reliable data transmission. The surgical hub system coordinates wireless communication between multiple devices, managing data flow without physical connections.
2Device complexity
If wireless communication is used for device pairing, then device entanglement is reduced, but ensuring sterility in the surgical field becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical hub acts as an intermediary device that remains outside the sterile field while coordinating communication between sterile surgical devices and non-sterile external systems. The hub receives wireless data from sterile devices, processes it, and manages pairing protocols without requiring sterile devices to directly communicate with non-sterile equipment, thus maintaining sterility boundaries.
3Measurement precision
If manual device pairing is performed, then pairing accuracy is achieved, but time consumption and operational efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
Surgical devices automatically perform pairing operations through wireless communication protocols. The devices self-identify, self-authenticate, and self-pair with the surgical hub without requiring manual intervention. This automated pairing process maintains accuracy through cryptographic authentication while dramatically reducing the time required compared to manual pairing procedures.
4Device complexity
If surgical devices operate without situational awareness, then device simplicity is maintained, but procedural context optimization is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The surgical hub provides a universal platform that collects data from multiple surgical devices and performs centralized situational awareness processing. Instead of requiring each individual device to be complex and intelligent, the hub aggregates information about procedural context, device status, and surgical workflow, then optimizes system-wide operations. This multi-functional approach maintains device simplicity while achieving high surgical efficiency through coordinated control.
Data Source
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AI summary
A surgical system includes a first surgical device comprising a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to be situationally aware of events occurring within the vicinity of the first surgical device according to data received from a database, a patient monitoring device, or a paired surgical device, or any combination of a database, patient monitoring device, or paired surgical device. The control circuit is configured to be wirelessly paired with a second surgical device according to usage of the first surgical device and the events of which the first surgical device is situationally aware.