Smart Assist

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  A pre-operation step that reminds surgeons of the patient's details.

Inspiration

Almost every person is Canada has accessed the healthcare system at some point in their life. Of these visits, coming in to have surgery is one of the most difficult experiences that a patient has to endure. We want to make surgical care a better experience for all parties involved – safer for the patients, more comfortable for the surgical team, and a lean process for the hospital.

What it does

SMARTassist is a monitor display system that enhances surgical team coordination during high-pressure procedural steps. We deliver Lean Thinking as a software solution for the OR, allowing for more streamlined and safe surgeries.

How we built it

We use a front end web interface that connects to the Myo Band to prompt surgeons. Also surgeons can interact with the surgeon through the myo band.

Challenges we ran into

There were two challenges that we primarily faced, the first relating to the technical assembly of our prototype, while the second centered around the adaptability of our solution to the OR. In terms for technical challenges, we had difficulty programming the Myo band interface into our software system. It was also challenging to anticipate what control actions to use that would be most comfortable for a surgeon to make to control SMARTassist. Moreover, current medical interfaces are not well designed, so we decided to focus greatly on the design of the product.

In a nutshell: (1) Making the myo band interface programmatically with our system was a challenge. Also, determining what interactions were the best to use for this. (2) Current medical interfaces are not well designed. Coming up with a new (usable) design paradigm for medical software was a huge challenge we had to overcome. (3) Thinking about the interactions and their feasibility in the operating room.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Completing a fully functioning prototype that actually works. Creating an attractive design that is clean, simple and functional. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to healthcare to make something impactful.

What we learned

When working in a team, having people of varying specializations is valuable.

What's next for Smart Assist

We would like to be able to perform usability testing in a surgery setting (i.e. have a mock surgery take place that is augmented with our product) to see if this is something that surgeons find useful.

Built With

• css
• html
• javascript
• myo-band