Takeaways From mobile phone apps to immersive virtual reality surgery experiences, digital tools make healthcare training more interactive, more engaging, and more fun for everyone from nurses to surgeons. Modern procedures—including minimally invasive techniques and robotic surgery—require 50 to 100 cases for a surgeon to reach a safe proficiency level…

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What if a surgeon decided to perform a procedure on a patient that was not totally necessary? It happens more often that one might realize. As recently as August 2023, Forbes published an article that cited a Harvard Business Review report stating that over 50% of lumbar spine surgeries are…

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Next-Gen Disruptors: Technologies Transforming the OR Installment #1, presented by LeanTaaS Surgical procedures are necessary steps in patient journeys—no one wants to have surgery, but most people will need it at some point for care continuity and better quality of life. To best support positive outcomes, optimal recovery periods, and…

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Editor's Note Collaboration between Johnson & Johnson and Nvidia could soon enable surgeons to automate documentation by using artificial intelligence (AI) to scan video of procedures. CNBC reported the news March 18. Surgical video scans are just one possible application of the collaboration, with the report noting that “J&J’s MedTech…

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Editor's Note An augmented reality headset provided a scrub team with a detailed, mixed-reality view of a microsurgical spinal procedures to streamline surgery at Cromwell Hopsital in the UK, according to a March 14 report in Fox Business News. The headset, an Apple Vision Pro, was linked to eXeX, described…

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Editor's Note Researchers at Imperial College London are using noninvasive brain monitoring to understand the stressors contributing to cognitive overload in surgeons as well as how to combat the condition. The Guardian reported the news on March 2. The monitoring technique, called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), measures neural activity in…

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Editor's Note Ambient clinical documentation is making big inroads among physicians, according to a report on the recent Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference published by CNBC on March 16. This year’s conference attracted more than 30,000 health and technology professionals to Orlando, Florida March 3-6. Highlights of…

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Editor's Note A patient undergoing emergency neurosurgery at Northwestern Medicine became the first to benefit from a neurosurgical drill designed to eliminate the need for hand-crank operation. According to a March 5 report from Northwestern, the procedure occurred in October at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, “when Northwestern Medicine neurosurgeon Matthew Potts, MD used…

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Editor's Note Successful use of augmented reality in a cardiac ablation procedure holds additional promise for training as well as more advanced OR applications, according to a February 29 report from Stanford Medicine. During ablation, a treatment for heart arrythmias, surgeons typically refer to as many as eight screens depicting…

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Editor's Note Patient engagement technologies (PETs) reduced length of stay (LOS), complication rates, and readmission rates among patients in a study published February 16 in the American Journal of Surgery. The retrospective cohort study consisted of more than 400 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery from 2018 to 2022. Approximately 9…

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