Role of Human Factors in Establishing an Intelligent Operating Theatre

The proposed work is review of the issues of human factors and ergonomics in designing an intelligent operating theatre (IOT) which incorporates robotics systems for operation, patient monitoring, data storage and communication systems. A detailed discussion on setting up a theatre which considers factors influencing the automated systems and human interactions. The study describes using top down approach for analyzing the human factors (HF) in operation procedures, surgical tool movement and handling, patient monitoring systems, data collection system, communication systems using multiple video and audio channels required to co-ordinate the process between humans and automated systems. The theatre design is reviewed to include the HF to be considered with respect to the limitation of automated systems and requirement of patients. An ideal intelligent operating theatre focused on neurosurgery is envisioned wherein the task is uniformly divided between the automated systems and humans to improve the quality, precision, patient safety and mainly to reduce the medical error to enhance the quality of the medicine and operation.