Medtronic’s George Murgatroyd argues that upgrading outdated hospital tech will free up surgeons to focus more time on what really matters – caring for patients.
Scroll through your newsfeed, and every other headline covers a new way in which technology will change the world, from transport to entertainment to communication. But in healthcare, digital technology hasn’t even reached the 21st century.
Away from work, surgeons can access smart technology at their fingertips. In the hospital or the operating room, however, they still face outdated practices like fax, pagers and DVD recordings of operations. This is a growing crisis: a survey of 300 UK surgeons revealed 80pc believe that technological inefficiencies impede their ability to perform life-saving procedures.
Outdated, disconnected technology in the operating theatre means medical teams are forced to waste time on tasks that could be automated. Given the immense resourcing challenges that healthcare systems around the world face today, that time could – and should – be better spent on upskilling and training to improve patient care.
A barrier to better care
According to Medtronic’s State of Surgery in the UK report from last year, a surgeon in the UK loses on average about four hours per week due to inefficient technology. That’s a full month of work each year. And within this time, surgeons can spend an average of three hours a week uploading, analysing or searching for a specific surgical video. Limited options for accessing surgical videos presents one of the biggest blockers to efficient care. However, this issue is also one of the most solvable.
The ability to watch experienced surgeons’ case studies, or watch them operate in real time, is far more complex than it needs to be. While the public can remotely access live content with ease – from a governmental hearing to an influencer’s latest Instagram Live – trainee surgeons are stuck with obstructed views in crowded operating rooms or an old collection of DVDs and USBs.
The DVD is a relic of the past for many. In surgery, it’s still commonplace. It’s clearly unacceptable that surgeons’ ability to record, access and navigate training material still uses technology we relied on 20 years ago.
Save time, save lives
Upgrading and simplifying the way surgeons access their own case videos can make learning and development opportunities far more accessible and offer up more rapidly available, objective data to help coach and improve performance.
Healthcare providers need to do away with outdated methods like tapes and memory sticks, and provide new tools for medical staff. From apps which offer easy-access simulations to cloud-based libraries of surgical content to live-streaming options for video and audio from an operating theatre on one side of the world to another, new technology will have an immediate, positive impact on patient care and surgeons’ careers.
Getting this right would allow trainee surgeons to be tutored by experts from all over the world, raising the bar for performance on a global scale.
Surgeons can also improve their ability to conduct post-surgery analysis. In the same way as a professional athlete analyses their performance after a match, this is crucial for gaining valuable insights and improving performance – not to mention the value of explaining to a patient in clear terms what has taken place during a procedure, and what needs to happen next. Meanwhile, tools such as advanced encryption, and ‘auto-redact’ technology will help to maintain patient confidentiality.
A modern ecosystem of surgical content will also smooth the way to ultimately implementing AI technology into procedures. Surgeons will increasingly work with AI, so it’s essential that they’re provided with the latest tools and technologies to boost their readiness for the developments of the next ten years, rather than languishing in the previous twenty.
Invest in the future
Prof Sanjay Purkayastha, consultant surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare Trust, has expressed a “serious” need across the NHS to embrace modern tech, including a “completely digital medical records system”. And the UK government agrees. A government spokesperson recently said that access to new tech that can save staff time was a “key part” of its long-term workforce plan for the NHS.
As things stand though, technology in healthcare hasn’t kept pace. With the healthcare system already strained by staff shortages and long waiting lists, there’s an urgent need to improve access to high-quality training. We must ensure the tech we’re using in hospitals is up to date. We must level up the operating room.
Healthcare leaders now have an opportunity to improve surgical experiences by transitioning to more efficient, digital technology. By doubling down on updated training tools, we can transform how surgeons learn and work. This returns valuable time to surgeons so they can do what they do best – caring for patients.
That’s a future worth investing in.
George Murgatroyd, PhD, is VP of the Digital Technologies Unit at Medtronic, a leading medtech company headquartered in Dublin. He leads digital experience across Medtronic’s surgical ecosystem, which includes a global portfolio of surgical devices, robotics, instrumentation and software.
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