Monitoring and diagnosis of networked medical hardware and software for the integrated operating room

Abstract

1. Purpose Interoperability of heterogeneous medical devices, clinical information systems and components of computer assisted surgery (CAS) has been recognized for its potential to improve the overall clinical workflow as well as ergonomic conditions by centralized access and control of the integrated system. However, the installation of an integrated IT infrastructure with additional computer hardware, software, and network components heavily increases the overall technical complexity within the operating room (OR). The life critical domain within the OR demands safe and reliable operation of the integrated OR components. Therefore, an appropriate technical supervision framework is required that supports high confident functionality by facilitating systems monitoring and diagnosis of the networked hardware and software. System failures, network bottlenecks or unstable conditions should be detected to enable appropriate interventions and mitigation strategies.