Clinical and commercial validation of AI driven automated inventory management for surgery

为了安全操作，外科医生需要在正确的时间和正确的控制下使用正确的器械。通常，他们不明白。目前世界各地追踪手术器械的过程非常不充分，负责实施外科手术的医疗保健提供者面临一些严重的全球性问题。由于经济条件困难，全球医疗保健提供者已经面临严重的削减，由于人口老龄化，该部门预计手术需求将大幅增加，因此迫切需要改善患者安全。此外，可预防的医疗事故是美国第三大死亡原因。在英国，每年因医疗差错造成的损失估计超过10亿英镑。手术室（OR）是财务浪费的常见来源，在英国平均每天浪费两个手术室小时，导致每个手术室每月的机会成本损失超过10万英镑。拥有正确的库存是提高手术室和消毒服务效率的关键因素。人工确保手术器械的数量和可用性每年花费NHS 1.6亿英镑。此外，医院严重未充分利用托盘中的手术器械（使用了15-20%的器械），导致浪费并对碳足迹产生负面影响。目前跟踪手术库存的技术是使用RFID系统，这种系统价格昂贵，而且只能识别物体而不能定位。在Scalpel，我们开发了尖端的计算机视觉驱动技术，可以在没有任何标签的情况下识别数百种手术器械。我们的技术提供了清晰和准确的库存信息，目前在托盘和图形显示任何缺失的项目。我们的系统以秒为单位计算仪器，节省的人力资源可以用于更有成效的活动。我们的技术是与多个NHS信托基金合作开发和验证的，并由英国创新公司资助。这个多学科项目为成功采用斯科佩尔开发的创新技术提供了进一步的证据。虽然到目前为止，我们主要关注的是手术室，但该项目的预期产出包括一个更先进的传感器中心和一个模型，该模型可以在消毒单元的生命周期的各个阶段对所有外科专业的仪器进行计数。然后，我们将采用同样的技术来改善医院的库存流程。

To operate safely, surgeons need the right instrument at the right time, and under the right controls. Frequently, they don't get it. Current processes for tracking the surgical instruments around the world are highly inadequate and healthcare providers responsible for carrying out surgical procedures face some serious global issues. At a time when global healthcare providers are already encountering severe cutbacks due to difficult economic conditions, there is also an urgent need to improve patient safety as the sector expects a significant increase in surgical requirements from an ageing population. Further, preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US. In the UK, the annual estimated cost of medical error is more than £1bn. Operating rooms (OR) are a common source of financial waste, on average two operating room hours a day are wasted in England, leading to a loss of over £100K per OR per month of opportunity cost.Having the right inventory is a key factor in improving the efficiency of operating rooms and sterilisation services. Manually ensuring the count and availability of surgical instruments costs the NHS £160 million annually. Further, hospitals significantly underuse the surgical instruments in a tray (15-20% of instruments are used), leading to wastage and negatively impacting carbon footprint.The current state of the art in tracking surgical inventory is to use RFID systems, which are expensive and only identify an object without localisation.At Scalpel, we developed cutting edge Computer Vision driven technology that identifies hundreds of surgical instruments without any tags. Our technology provides clear and accurate information of inventory present in a tray and a graphical display of any missing items. Our system counts instruments in seconds, saving in staff resources can be channelled into more productive activities.Our technology was developed and validated working with multiple NHS Trusts and funded by Innovate UK.This multidisciplinary project generates further evidence for the successful adoption of the innovative technologies developed by Scalpel.Whilst we have focused primarily on operating rooms so far, the expected outputs from this project include a more advanced sensor hub and a model that counts instruments across all surgical specialities in a sterilisation unit at various phases in its life cycle. We will then bring the same technology to improve inventory flow in the hospitals.