Like all areas of medicine, surgical techniques are constantly evolving. However, new techniques are usually only presented theoretically at specialist congresses; practical training sessions usually take place in small groups in university clinics. RIMASYS GmbH from Cologne has developed "The Shard“ to make training and demonstrations clearer and more practical. The fully equipped mobile operating room can be constructed at trade fairs and congresses and, thanks to glass walls and a SIMEON Medical light system with HD cameras, provides insights into demonstrations or further training live on site or via a live stream.
From theory to practice
The annual congress for orthopedics and trauma surgery DKOU 2019 in Berlin will probably remain in everyone's memory for a long time to come: For the first time, a surgical training room was set up there as an exhibition stand. "We wanted to contribute to making the theoretical specialist congresses more practice oriented. So, we came up with the idea of setting up an operating room in the trade fair hall to enable practical demonstrations live on site," explains André Passon, CFO at RIMASYS GmbH. In collaboration with a shop fitter, a 120 m² fully glazed and fully equipped operating room was eventually created. The equipment was of the highest quality. The outer wall glass is radiopaque. Thanks to SIMEON's 4K wireless cameras integrated into the mobile operating lights, the action was transmitted live on screens outside the glass cube. The feedback from the congress participants was very positive. "Over time, a great cluster of people formed around our stand. The spectators were delighted, our stand was praised as the highlight of the congress," reports Passon.
From congress to tour
"After the congress, we received numerous requests for further congresses. That's why we decided to develop a mobile version of the laboratory," says Passon. However, some adjustments had to be made for this purpose. Together with a shop fitter, a concept has been developed that makes it quick and easy to set up and commission "The Shard". "'The Shard' has been designed so that it can be easily set up as a plug and play system and only needs to connect to a power outlet and connect to the Internet before it is started up," Passon explains. The entire system is TÜV-tested and the walls are made of special radiopaque glass, as was the case with the first model.
Adjustments have also been made to the furnishings of the room. For example, the mobile operating lights were replaced by a ceiling-mounted system with three SIMEON extension arms. The lighting required for the operation and image transmission is provided by a Sim.LED 7000 MC and a Sim.LED 5000 MC, each with 160,000 lx. "When selecting the lighting, it was particularly important to us to create both realistic operating conditions as well as ideal lighting conditions for the cameras," explains Passon. Thanks to the reflector technology of SIMEON lights, there is hardly any shadow in the light field. This is important both during an operation and for ideal image transmission. Shadowing or poor illumination could cause the operating field to be incorrectly reproduced. With SIMEON lights, this is ruled out.
The ceiling-mounted lights also offer a great flexibility advantage over mobile lights. Thanks to the SIMEON spring arms of the ceiling-mounted system, the lights can be flexibly positioned both very high and unbeatably low compared with competitor products, depending on the desired camera and light angle. As the suspension arm system can be rotated to any position, the lamps can be aligned in any position. And the monitor can also be freely positioned thanks to the >380° radius of action. As a result, the lights can also be divided into two workstations. "In 'The Shard', two operations can also be performed at the same time, for example as a comparison of different techniques. Therefore, it was important to us that the lights can be adjusted with maximum flexibility. SIMEON was able to offer us this flexibility in full. In the case of two surgeries, one light can be used per workstation without having to reposition it. For this situation with two workstations, both lights were each equipped with a Sim.CAM HD medical camera from SIMEON," explains Passon.
Flexible control
In order to be able to control the two lights and cameras independently of each other, a total of two SIMEON wall controls were installed. "Normally, installing multiple lights only includes one camera, so normally only one wall control is needed. However, to enable parallel operation, we chose a customized solution with two cameras and two operating elements," says Passon, explaining the reasons for the customized solution. Wall controls allow the director to optimally adjust the light and camera directly from the control room integrated in "The Shard".
The light parameters of the two lights can be automatically synchronized via the Sim.INTERFACE provided by SIMEON. If synchronization is activated and the color temperature or illumination intensity of one light, for example, is changed, this is also automatically adjusted for the other light in order to avoid color shadows in the light field. This makes things simple for both the surgeon and the directing team. If two different workstations are being used, synchronization can be easily deactivated via the gimbal control panel on the light. Then both lamps can be controlled independently of each other.
World premiere a complete success
The mobile version of "The Shard" was demonstrated to the professional audience for the first time during the "Surgical Treatment Week" in October 2020. "In times of social distancing, of course, we couldn't present 'The Shard' at a trade fair or congress, as originally planned. Instead, we set it up in an empty hall in Cologne and streamed the surgeries live online. Of course, we didn't even think of this application case," says Passon. The outstanding image quality of SIMEON's HD camera system in particular was praised by spectators and the surgeon. "We are very happy that our mobile operating room was so well received and would be delighted if we could continue to present it to local audiences in the future," concludes Passon. In "The Shard", all kinds of operations can be performed on preparations. New medical technology can also be demonstrated in action for the first time here.
SIMEON is also delighted with the successful premiere and cooperation. "We have been working with RIMASYS for a long time" explains Dr. Markus Keussen, Managing Director of SIMEON Medical GmbH. "The CadLab surgical training center operated by RIMASYS in Cologne also uses our lights. We are, of course, delighted that our lighting and camera technology are also represented in such an innovative project as 'The Shard'," Dr. Keussen continues. Passon adds: "We chose partners for 'The Shard' whose products not only meet a very high quality standard, but also rely on the Made in Germany mark. SIMEON meets both these criteria. SIMEON was therefore our first choice for lighting, cameras and the associated peripherals."
