Integrating a Tracking Camera in the OR Using the IEEE 11073-SDC Communication Standard

With the increasing spread of computer assisted surgery, more and more modern operating rooms are equipped with navigation systems, each coming with its own tracking camera. Since those cameras are part of the closed monolithic navigation system, they can’t be used for other applications than the one intended by the supplier. With the novel service oriented device connectivity standard (IEEE 11073-SDC), introduced by the OR.NET initiative (www.ornet.org), needless double procurements could be avoided and multiple systems could use the same camera that – similar to OR lights – could be installed as a standard equipment in each OR. This would decrease the cost-to-benefit ratio also of new applications that would currently as such not justify to acquire a proprietary tracking camera.While the integration of a tracking camera to an open medical device IT network can open up for new applications, it should on the other hand not impair the usability and the safety of the navigation system. Therefore, a low latency must be guaranteed between tracking camera and navigational display.This paper evaluates the integration of an atracsys fusionTrack 500 tracking camera into the OR.NETwork. The response time from a change in the real world to the reception of the corresponding data package is measured to determine the feasibility of an integra- tion without impairing current navigational tasks.The results show that, as long as the underlying network infrastructure is not at its capacity limit, latencies below 60 ms are achieved. Therefore, the integration of a tracking camera for navigational tasks is feasible.

Evaluation of an IEEE 11073 SDC Connection of two KUKA Robots towards the Application of Focused Ultrasound in Radiation Therapy

The integration of surgical robotics into the operating room requires reliable and flexible communication with other medical devices. The IEEE 11073 SDC standard can provide the necessary requirements to deploy robotics for the application of focused ultrasound in radiation therapy. The aim of this work was to implement and evaluate an SDC compliant connection between two collaborative robots. For this purpose, the KUKA LBR iiwa 7 R800 was adapted and the connectivity modelled and then tested successfully with 42 transmittable properties. Latency measurements were conducted to evaluate the network stability, resulting in a median round trip time of 10.13 ms.

Concepts for Developing Interoperable Software Frameworks Implementing the New IEEE 11073 SDC Standard Family

The long overdue IEEE 11073 Service-oriented Device Connectivity (SDC) standard proposals for networked and surgical devices provide vendor-independent interoperability and therefore room for improved workflow and new functionality in the operating room. Research and development in this domain remain also highly topical in orthopaedic surgery. Due to the novelty and complexity of the SDC standard family, there is currently a lack of open source public implementations. Such implementations have to overcome several non-trivial challenges, mainly because the complexity of the standards has to be reflected in the software design and implementation. The SDC standard family comes in three different parts and all three standard proposals must be considered when designing and implementing standard conform device communication. In this work, we address these challenges and discuss and compare two design approaches for different programming languages (C++ and Java). Suitable software engineering principles are used to ensure a clean design approach. Practical guidelines are given on how to integrate existing third party components and tools in the framework and the development process, respectively. General feasibility is demonstrated by outlining interoperability between two software frameworks developed using different design concepts.