Challenge
When a patient experiences a large bone break, hospital teams will undergo an initial x-ray to show the exact location and severity of the break, identifying the best repair solution.
A steel rod is often inserted, using connecting pins to hold this in place with an additional x-ray ensuring these pins are sitting in the right location for the most effective recovery.
On average, patients can be in the hospital for around 2-3 hours for inspection and care. Drill Surgeries wanted to explore alternative methods for reducing this hospital time and where possible, how to avoid a secondary x-ray appointment.
Solution
Drill Surgeries approached the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) due to their existing experience in supporting the healthcare industry to adopt digital tools for improving medical processes.
The VEC investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology could improve the assessment of precise and accurate positioning of the pins and steel rods, resulting in removing a secondary x-ray.
Whilst developing their digital strategy, the teams explored multiple avenues for how to effectively integrate this technology into existing Drill Surgeries devices, allowing the company to track patient algorithms for further research.
Impact
By removing the secondary x-ray, hospital teams can reduce time spent on each ‘break’ patient, creating a more cost-effective solution whilst improving patient safety and reducing their radiation exposure.
The accuracy and visibility that this will provide to the surgeon will allow for a much less intrusive operation, reduced operating times and patient records will be able to capture the operational data for future review if necessary.
Demonstrating the precision imagery and how this technology can be developed, can encourage this method to be utilised in other surgical procedures.
Drill Surgeries believe non-intrusive VR and AR technologies can also improve how comfortable a patient feels in addition to reducing time spent in the healthcare environment, allowing for an increased number of patients to be seen by professional medical staff.
For the full downloadable case study, please click here.
Drill Surgeries are always keen to collaborate with experts within different fields as part of our wider research to ensure we have explored all possible fields for ensuring our product is as effective as possible. For that reason, it was great to work with the Virtual Engineering Centre which have a background in supporting the healthcare industry in the adoption of digital technologies for increasing the safety of current processes amongst many other benefits.
We are now developing our MedTech devices and tools further, using our digital strategy for ensuring we remain innovative, and our universal clients and patients can reap the benefits.
Moises Barbera Ramos, CEO and Founder, Drill Surgeries
