Acting smarter with data

In this article, Ross Jones and Chris Warwick, members of the Applied Science Team at Sagentia, look at the role analytics could play in the smart surgery phenomenon, as regulatory and perceived performance risks are overcome.

Introducing the potential for analytics in smart surgery.

Data analytics has wide ranging potential in surgery, encompassing surgeon training, pre-operative planning, intra-operative data fusion and navigation, performance analysis and improved intra-operative diagnostics based on machine learning.

However, regulatory hurdles, and in some cases insufficient robustness of the algorithms themselves, have limited smart algorithms to advisory and time saving applications outside of the operating room (OR). The uptake has also been limited by the difficulty of integrating new software products into existing workflows, for example integrating any proprietary software systems such as an intra-operative visualization system.