Explorer Live, a cloud-based digital platform customized for medical device companies to share best practices live with surgical teams, is expanding into robotic surgery, predicted to be the fastest-growing market for the next 10 years.
Medical robotics companies can now leverage Explorer Live, a digital platform featuring a first-of-its-kind procedural playbook, video capabilities and robust data collection to provide unparalleled support and insight into workflow and performance.
Robotic technology is transforming health care worldwide; enabling surgeons to perform cases with more precision and providing minimal downtime for the patient. But the increased learning curve in robotic surgeries presents a unique set of challenges for coordination and collaboration in the operating room.
For robotic surgeries to be most effective and efficient, even the highest-performing surgeons and clinical teams need to overcome the learning curve for setting up in an OR, proper intraoperative use, new ways of communication and more.
Easing the learning curve supports surgeon proficiency, clinical team satisfaction, and reduced OR inefficiencies – all of which encourage medical device adoption and increase hospital revenues for a return on investment.
With Explorer Live, all the processes and workflows of a robotic procedure are accessible before a surgical team does any case – whether it’s the first or the 100th case – a “tremendous support for creating consistency when using robotic technology”.
Surgical teams and medical robotics companies have access to:
- All images, PDFs, and videos about the system, surgical techniques, and a step-by-step workflow for each team member in the OR. The digital playbook is customized to the clinical team’s role, procedure type, and surgeon preferences.
- Surgeons can broadcast in real-time to provide clinical education, remote collaboration, or demonstrations to potential users.
- The platform can capture robust video and procedural data used by a surgeon or in partnership with a medical robotics company for performance tracking, identifying opportunities to reduce variability, post-market feedback and analysis, and future product development.
Jennifer Fried, CEO and co-founder of Explorer Surgical, says: “Our goal is simple, yet critical: find a better way to provide medical device companies with actionable insights on the black box of surgery.
“For example, there is a perception of surgery that the surgeon is the key to successful outcomes, but we know this downplays the role of the nurses, scrub techs, reps, and others that can greatly contribute to workflow and efficiency.
“We are the only tool that not only focuses on guiding every team member but also gives a wide view of all of the players in the room and captures data on what they do. This data collection enables future innovation for medical device companies.
“We have a vision of the future where predictive analytics will passively collect additional data points throughout a procedure and intelligently feed them into workflows for greater efficiencies and patient outcomes.”
OR efficiency and post-market data analysis is critical to support the successful adoption of robotic technology, and it supports a company’s continuous improvement and innovation.
For example, in a recently published paper, researchers used Explorer Live to measure inefficiencies during the setup of an OR when prepping for a procedure.
The researchers found inefficiencies can prolong the time of a case by 24.7 percent. These inefficiencies consisted of missing items, a compromised sterile field, and patient or equipment positioning.
Explorer Live’s digital platform helps teams anticipate everything needed during a procedure, minimizing the potential for inefficiencies from even happening.
Vasili Karas, MD, MS, orthopedic surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, in Chicago, says: “When we are doing robotic technology, it’s brand-new to several people. It is not like changing from one implant vendor to another.
“It’s a true paradigm shift in the operating room, so having a learning tool like Explorer Live to bring all of the various steps and instruments together in one place is huge.”
Anthony Fernando, president and CEO of Asensus Surgical, says: “Surgical efficiency and data collection are at the core of performance-guided surgery.
“Data-driven insights into how devices are actually used are invaluable to the adoption of innovative approaches, especially those that create an entirely new dynamic for setup, interaction, and communication.
“The opportunity here is to not only make best practices easily accessible when it counts most but derive actionable takeaways from how those best practices are used and adhered to.”
Explorer Live has been successfully implemented in the ORs of top hospitals, such as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
The company has experienced 6x growth year-over-year, and has on boarded more than 20 new medical device customers across multiple therapeutic areas.
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