Monitoring of Surgeon’s Surgical Skills Using Internet of Things-Enabled Medical Instruments

Abstract

With improvements in sensor technology and the expansion of unique device identifier regulation, the Internet of Things (IoT)—whereby everything in one’s surroundings is connected to the Internet—is gaining popularity across numerous fields. In recent years, attention has been further drawn to new approaches, such as Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet Consortium. At the heart of this concept is the IoT trend, which is the key to visualization and connectivity technologies. The IoT trend is also expanding gradually into the medical field and medical devices. However, existing applications in the medical field are only experimental undertakings. Compared with the IoT trend in general society, which is reaching the level of social implementation, medical applications have lagged behind. In particular, the IoT trend has not yet commenced in the field of surgery, and the feasibility of visualizing surgical procedures through IoT has not yet been demonstrated. In the future, assuming that the IoT trend will reach the operating room, questions arise about what would be the outcome of this technological application and whether sensor technology would truly enable the visualization of surgical procedures. In this chapter, we describe some of the recent tools and systems that may bridge the gap between surgery and operating room innovation by IoT-enabled medical instruments.