ALVO® OR integration solutions overview

Minimally invasive surgery has changed the way many surgical procedures are now performed. Digitalization has boosted surgical efficiency. With the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, we could observe the rise of remote surgical collaboration and robotic surgery. The ‘new normal’ has also revealed the risks patients and health workers were facing including surgical site infections (SSI), cross-contamination and even death. The duration of surgery had to be optimized, staff exposure to coronavirus decreased, and greater emphasis put on quality management.

The new, challenging reality has impacted and will shape many different aspects of the hospital workflow. Alvo Medical OR integration portfolio addresses ever-increasing demand for cost-effective treatment, improved healing conditions, zero infections target and facilitated operating room management.

In order to meet specific surgical requirements, ALVO Medical launches three OR integration solutions. Learn more about each of them.

ALVO® OR Control

ALVO®OR Control comes as the basic operating room integration solution aimed to help hospitals overcome personnel shortages and provide safe surgical environment with minimized contamination exposure and improved patient management. Surgical room settings may be done remotely from one hygienic touch screen, away from the sterile field.  OR status displays and centralized management of medical devices and room settings pre- and intra-operatively boost efficiency and reduce pathogens transmission.

Enabling remote surgical collaboration: ALVO® Integra

The added value in the ALVO® Integra offering is high quality video management. Plug-and-play connection of video sources (eg. endoscopes), video routing with images displayed on assigned monitors in the OR. Also, video streaming outside the operating room, within the hospital network. This way medical experts and students can watch surgical procedures either as live feeds or saved sessions. Patient data management can be optimized, too. Every operating room may have an operating nurse’s station with direct access to PACS and HIS systems. Surgical staff no longer need to leave the OR to use the computer in another room. That saves time and increases epidemiological safety.

The open software architecture of the system enables its further expansion with new video sources and monitors, without interference into the cabling infrastructure.

Clinicians favor ergonomic room light scenes

Ergonomic lighting (RGBW technology) allows the color of the light in the operating room to be adjusted to the phase of surgery. Individual settings of light scenes can be recalled from the Alvo® Integra touch screen. Light scenes based on the colors of red (R), green (G), blue (B) and white (W) are used, depending on the type or stage of surgery. The lights use energy saving mode. It means that special sensors will automatically reduce light intensity when the operating room is unused for set time.

ALVO® Integra X

With ALVO® Integra X surgeons, technicians and students can interact real-time with simultaneous voice communication. Clinicians may record surgeries and stream live video conferences to a large auditorium, outside the hospital. In addition, telestration software will allow annotations to be drawn over video footage to illustrate key clinical findings. So, you get fully interactive, bi-directional communication. ALVO® Integra X takes a project approach, with OR integration solutions tailored to individual customers’ needs.

Digital checklists for safer surgery

Many surgical teams are now turning traditional paper checklists into digitally synchronized OR tools that guide them step-by-step throughout surgery.

Using digital technology to implement Surgical Safety Checklists based on WHO and CDC frameworks and hospitals’ own benchmarks, helps surgical teams enhance compliance to aligned protocols, prevent errors, collect and analyze data for debriefing sessions and for improvement.

What data can we collect and display from an operating table?

Apart from digital checklists, there is more data to be displayed and monitored during an ongoing surgery. One of the latest technology available is an operating table mattress system with a software which will continuously monitor skin risk and pressure.

Safe patient positioning on the surgical table may be monitored real-time in order to effectively prevent from pressure ulcers, decubitus and nerves injuries, which often occur during prolonged surgeries. ALVO® SENSEi software will monitor patient position intraoperatively. Special sensors generate and record real-time anatomic image of the patient’s body mapping the points of pressure. Thanks to this technology the anesthesia care and surgical team may observe on any assigned display in the OR the layout of forces and high pressure areas, to immediately react and reposition the patient. Repositioning, aimed at releasing from pressure defined body part, eg. through performing slight Trendelenburg, may be done remotely, via the ALVO® Integra X touch screen.

Integrated operating suites are neat by definition, allow the hospitals to ideally plan and locate the equipment needed, facilitate OR management. The aim of OR integration is to create a safe and effective ecosystem where innovative technologies help improve clinical outcomes. The ALVO® OR integration solutions support monitoring performance, boost communication, education and data management.