A Superior Operation... By Definition

Sony HD video products help California Pacific Medical Center build a clinically advanced, streamlined O.R. and advanced surgical training center.

"At California Pacific Medical Center, our goal was to create an operating room and training center that was new, exciting and could be found nowhere else--with state-of the-art high-definition video and advanced surgical visualization," says David Razavi, hospital director of media services, who also manages video in clinical settings. "So, we worked with world-class equipment vendors like Sony Electronics, which provided many products and Karl Storz Endoscopy, which was responsible for the system integration, and we pushed the boundaries of traditional medical technology to incorporate consumer and professional equipment to create cutting edge results."

As California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) was pushing boundaries in its surgical system design, at the same time, it was pushing the boundaries of the operating room itself. Taking advantage of the realism and immediacy of cutting edge video, its new O.R. 10 transcends the barriers of space and time to bring every member of the surgical team center stage at the operating table, while turning the O.R. into a unique interactive classroom without walls.

The first end-to-end HD O.R. in the nation, O.R. 10 serves as a laboratory for advanced applications of high resolution video in a surgical setting. Linked through HD video to the OR, CPMC's newly opened SimSurg Education Center is designed to bring the immediacy of the real-time surgical procedures into a teaching environment through HD technology and includes an array of Sony LCD 24-inch HD surgical monitors.

"The detail and clarity of HD images provide multiple times more medical information than standard definition video technology. The difference is like an old-fashioned rabbit-ear television picture, compared to the detailed, sweeping panoramas of today's large screen home theatre. Which would you rather your physician use?" says Stephen Lockhart, MD PhD, an anesthesiologist and CPMC Medical Director of Surgical Services, who helped spearhead the project. "Whether for clinical procedures or educational training, presenting healthcare professionals with HD video is really quite similar to giving them a front row seat at a surgical procedure, while providing surgeons themselves with a crystal clear window on the body."

Today in CPMC's new HD O.R. 10, a Sony video camera glides effortlessly on a steel boom above the patient to capture the precise movements of skilled surgeons manipulating complex equipment. At the same time, HD endoscopic imaging systems reveal unprecedented details that can help guide physicians past the glistening edge of an organ to pinpoint the optimal site to make a cut. All the while, another Sony camera pans the room to provide a broader perspective as the mutually dependent activities of anesthesiologist, nurses and surgical support staff proceed like clockwork, when precision and time matter most. To keep the OR team apprised of the entire surgical scene, all these images can be displayed in real time throughout the O.R. as needed.

With these advanced new HD O.R. cameras, as well as monitors, video recorders, conferencing systems and other HD technology—more than two 8-foot racks of it, to be precise—the term operating theatre takes on dramatic new meaning, as the future of surgery is put on fast forward at CPMC in a variety of important ways.

With enhanced detail, color and clarity, according to Dr. Lockhart, HD images of the surgical field make a significant difference in the precision, speed and safety of procedures. This is particularly true of minimally invasive surgeries (MI) because, without HD technology, the small window of an endoscope typically obscures the detail seen in procedures. However, HD's subtle color gradations reveal the difference between muscle and bowel tissue, for example, while boosting clinical confidence about where to make an incision by visualizing small, significant shadows.

Additionally, with real time HD technology capturing and displaying the precise movements of the surgeon and the entire OR team, these specialists can function as a group much more effectively and anticipate what may be needed next, wherever they are stationed.

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