News Releases & Research Results Clinical Testing starts in the Standard Model “Smart Cyber Operating Theater®” – Connection between medical devices in operating rooms and coordination with medical staff outside the operating rooms using IoT

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
Tokyo Women’s Medical University
Shinshu University
Denso Corporation
Hitachi, Ltd.

• At present, in operating rooms and other clinical settings, doctors and medical staff have to carry out treatments while evaluating vast amounts of information from all kinds of medical devices in a limited amount of time.
• In view of this, together with 5 universities, including Tokyo Women’s Medical University and Shinshu University, and 11 companies including Denso Corporation and Hitachi, Ltd., AMED is developing "Smart Cyber Operating Theater®" in which diverse medical devices and equipment are connected and coordinated using IoT in order to achieve integrated assessments of progress of operations and patients’ conditions so that accuracy and safety of operations can be enhanced.
• The Standard Model targeted for commercialization in fiscal 2019 has been completed at Shinshu University (Shinshu University Hospital). Nearly all of the devices in an operating room are connected via network and functions such as those for coordination with the medical imaging management systems in hospitals and communication with doctors and other medical staff outside the operating room, have been provided. Clinical testing to verify the efficiency and safety of operations using such information integration is starting this month.

Currently, doctors and other staff have to conduct treatments while evaluating vast amounts of information produced by diverse medical devices and equipment in an operating room and other clinical settings in a limited amount of time. With a view to solving this problem, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED, President Makoto Suematsu) has become a world leader in the development of "Smart Cyber Operating Theater®". In them, through the use of IoT to connect and coordinate all types of medical devices and equipment, information on the progress of operations and patients’ conditions is instantaneously sorted and integrated according to time sequences and shared among doctors and other staff.

Tokyo Women’s Medical University (professor Yoshihiro Muragaki, assistant professor Jun Okamoto of Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science) is overseeing the project and Denso is playing a central role in developing the highly versatile OPeLiNK® interface for operating rooms using ORiN (Open Resource Interface for the Network), middleware as the core technology and connecting Hitachi’s Open MRIs and other operating room medical devices and equipment to it. ORiN is widely used in industry both in Japan and other countries. In 2016, the “Basic Model” was installed at Hiroshima University Hospital and the “Hyper Model (prototype)” was installed at Tokyo Women’s Medical University. Since then, packaging of devices has been carried out and new applications have been developed.

Aiming at commercialization during fiscal 2019, the “Standard Model” operating room equipped with OPeLiNKⓇ has been completed in the Center for Advanced Medicine of Shinshu University Hospital (Professor of Neurosurgery Kazuhiro Hongo, senior assistant professor Tetsuya Goto ). Collecting and providing (displaying) diverse medical information as “time-sequence treatment records” and sharing it with doctors and technicians outside the operating rooms are expected to enhance the efficiency and safety of treatment. Clinical testing in brain cancer surgery for verification of this model will start this month. In the future, information from “Smart Cyber Operating Theater®”could be analyzed as big data and there will also be advantages from the maintenance and management aspects, such as in preventing equipment operation errors, detecting device failures in advance and cost control (reducing operating time).

We aim to commercialize the “Standard Model” during fiscal 2019 and it is expected to be a basis for a new industry in Japan through exportation of “Smart Cyber Operating Theater®”. Hitachi will take charge of selling the operating rooms as a package. By the end of this fiscal year, the “Hyper Model” that is capable of clinically testing will be installed at Tokyo Women’s Medical University and from fiscal 2020 onwards, robotic beds, novel precision guided treatments and other new technologies will be released as appropriate. The project will promote the diffusion of Smart Operating Room using OPeLiNK®, a form of operating room infrastructure that provides an open development environment.

Technical inquiries

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
Division of Medical Device Research, Department of Industrial-Academic Collaboration
Yomiuri Shimbun Bldg. 1-7-1 Otemachi Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 100-0004 Japan
Tel：+81-3-6870-2213　Fax：+81-3-6870-2242
E-mail：miraiiryou"AT"amed.go.jp

Media inquiries

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
Department of Plannig and Management 
Yomiuri Shimbun Bldg. 1-7-1 Otemachi Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 100-0004 Japan
Tel：+81-03-6870-2245
E-mail：contact"AT"amed.go.jp

Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University
Contact person: Sekiya
8-1, Kawadacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8666
Tel：03-5367-9945 Ext.43207　Fax：03-3359-6046
E-mail：abmes-koho.aa"AT"twmu.ac.jp

General Affairs Section, General Affairs Division, Shinshu University Hospital
Contact person: Shiokawa
3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture 390-8621
Tel：0263-37-2737 
E-mail：byouin_soumu"AT"gm.shinshu-u.ac.jp

Denso Corporation
Contact persons：Suzuki, Matsuda
1-1, Showa-cho, Kariya, Aichi Prefecture 448-0029
Tel：0566-25-5594、5593　Fax：0566-25-4509

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