Alder Hey Children’s Hospital recently moved to a new facility, with 16 operating theatres, 13 of which are fitted with the latest Sony surgical monitor and room camera technology.
One of Europe’s largest children’s hospitals, Alder Hey cares for 275,000 young people and their families every year. Following its centenary in 2014, the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust began planning a move to what will become one of the UK’s most digitally advanced hospitals. The aim is to continue delivering world class children’s healthcare for years to come, and build a facility from the ground up with technology at its core.
In October 2015 the hospital moved to its new facility – Alder Hey in the Park. The new site includes 270 beds, including those for intensive care, high dependency, and burns patients, as well as 16 operating theatres.
In the new operating theatres Alder Hey needed to create an environment that used the latest digital technologies to both aid clinicians in the operating room and enhance overall patient care, ensuring a holistic approach to healthcare and wellbeing.
In the operating rooms, this meant a visual solution that would provide exceptional image quality for surgeons during all types of procedures. The hospital also needed a way to live-stream surgeries and record them for future educational opportunities.
Thirteen of the hospital’s new operating rooms are now equipped with a pair of Sony’s 27in LMD-2765MD surgical monitors on a boom arm. Designed with endoscopic surgery, ophthalmology, surgical microscopy, neurology and open surgery in mind, the monitors have been installed to provide surgeons with clear, full HD images while operating. Each operating room also features a 43in professional BRAVIA display, as an additional visual aid to all those working in these integrated theatres.
To provide a complete overview of every operation, the operating rooms also include a Sony SRG-300SE PTZ video camera mounted to the ceiling, which feature full HD imaging capabilities and 12x digital zoom. Sony’s View-DR technology means that the cameras benefit from an expanded dynamic range, helping to ensure high quality images even in the harsh lighting of a surgical environment.
Any footage captured in the operating rooms, either by an SRG-300SE or endoscopic camera, can also be shown in other areas of the hospital via the hospital network, thanks to a third party system called Nucleus. The system allows the captured video to be showed on any required monitor or display within any OR, creating an opportunity for surgeons to consult their colleagues during complicated procedures in a seamless and timely manner. This solution also allows footage to be broadcast live to lecture rooms both inside and outside the hospital, or stored for future reference, to support educational training.
Iain Hennessey, consultant paediatric surgeon and clinical lead for innovation at Alder Hey, explained: “At Alder Hey we are open to exploring new ideas and technologies to improve the care of our patients. We have created an innovative hospital and it is fitting that within that we have made space for a research and innovation hub where our scientists and clinicians can freely collaborate with external experts and companies to incubate new ideas, develop and test them and then share the results. Our ongoing work with Sony is really stimulating for everyone involved, and our co-location within a busy hospital means that we can constantly gain input from our key customers; the children and young people.”
Ludger Philippsen, head of Sony Healthcare Solutions Europe, added: “Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has long been a centre of excellence for paediatric healthcare, and the move to this facility marks the beginning of a new and even more innovative chapter in its story. Sony has a broad range of experience and technologies, and we were proud to provide imaging solutions that would both assist clinical work and help to lift the spirits of the hospital’s young patients and their families for years to come. The operating facility is now one of the most technologically advanced medical environments globally, and will stand apart as a trailblazer for next-generation paediatric care. We are looking forward to future collaboration opportunities as we continue to work with the hospital.”
