Trend: Digital ORs could push out surgeons

Of course, the operating room is increasingly becoming automated. But according to some observers, we're just at the tip of the iceberg. Soon, say Dr. Charles Shanley and David Ellis, ORs will move far beyond depending on EMRs and picture archiving and communications systems.

In the future, they predict, the digital Web enmeshing ORs will include wide deployment of RFID, not only for supply chain management but also for tracking patients and clinicians. The OR environment will also feature a tremendously rich menu of communication choices, including not only existing options but also videoconferencing and wireless voice communications.

Perhaps most radically, they note that intelligent digital technologies--in tandem with patient-specific simulators--will ultimately lead to automated surgical technologies that could push surgeons out of the OR. While this idea is frightening for most clinicians, it's a logical outgrowth of the increasing levels of integration a clinical enterprise must achieve, they suggest.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this Hospitals & Health Networks article

Related Articles:
IBM offers RFID-based med tracking. Report
Study: Healthcare RFID use to grow dramatically. Report

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