Caresyntax & Intel Collaborate to Address Surgical Staffing Shortage

Combining capabilities to develop breakthrough technologies for transforming surgery. Hospitals and Surgery Centers face many challenges in surgery as they work to recover from COVID. Directors of Perioperative Services, Surgeons, OR Staff and OR managers are facing high levels of stress with maintaining quality patient care, increasing surgical case volume from backlogs, while at the same time optimizing their clinical and operational efficiency, in these unprecedented times of COVID.

A recent study of medical-surgical nurses found that “more than half of the respondents reported high workloads and intentions to leave their current position.”[i] There was a report this week of the largest health system in Massachusetts having to close their ORs, even without a COVID surge, due to staff absences and more complex cases.[ii] Caresyntax and Intel recently announced that they are combining their capabilities to help address these unique challenges.

Caresyntax’s data-driven digital OR surgery platform and Intel’s AI-powered technology will be leveraged to help address the need to quickly train new OR staff as a result of the turnaround and departures that are contributing to the acute staffing shortage.

“Surgeons and their care teams work in increasingly demanding and high-pressure environments, with a high cognitive load and staff shortages,” said Dennis Kogan, co-founder, and CEO of Caresyntax. “By bringing together Caresyntax’s market-leading expertise in data, software, and surgery, and Intel’s unmatched hardware and software capabilities for artificial intelligence, we have the potential to amplify the benefits of our data-driven surgery platform for patients, surgeons, healthcare providers, and insurance companies.”

How AI is Driving Innovation in Surgical Decision Support Tools

Clinical decision support tools for surgery rely on a number of sources–data, images, and surgery video–to provide insights for optimizing care. AI-enabled technology can take those data sources and provide timely and actionable insights. Surgical intelligence using big data can provide perioperative leaders with the right data and tools to maximize OR efficiency; analyze large volumes of video, audio, images, device data, clinical, and operational data in and around the OR.

To provide real-time processing of visual data, AI inferencing models are needed. That’s where the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit running on Intel® Core™ Processors can offer powerful functionality. The inferencing can happen faster and reduce the time to get critical insights and drive improvements in surgical processes.

“Intel’s mission is to improve the lives of every person on the planet through technology,” explains Stacy Shulman, Intel Vice President of Health, Education and Consumer Industries. “Through the use of Intel-powered AI technologies, Caresyntax is able to harness more insights from data as they progress towards their goal of helping care teams improve patient outcomes in the surgical room.”

Insights to Improve Surgical Education, Perioperative Efficiency, and Patient Safety

In addition to its first applications, the full suite of decision support tools available on Caresyntax’s data-driven surgery platform will be enhanced using Intel’s AI technology.

Identifying Risk Factors to Inform the Care Path

Data regarding a patient’s risk factors can be used to determine the most appropriate care path to optimize all aspects of the procedure. This is where precision health becomes “precision surgery,” customized based on data to maximize patient outcomes and to monitor patient outcomes post-operation.

Patient data collection lets clinicians analyze patient data and predict patient risks for post-operative complications such as surgical site infection (SSI), readmission, complications, and more.

Efficient OR Staff Onboarding and Training

Acute staffing shortages have led to an increase in traveling nurses and new OR staff members who are in need of training and efficient onboarding. The Caresyntax Surgical Playbook helps new members of OR teams quickly get up to speed on the surgeon and procedural preferences. It ensures that the right instruments, supplies, and implants are available to surgeons.

The Caresyntax Personalized Surgical Playbook enables rapid onboarding of new clinicians and travel nurses. Turn-by-turn guidance functionality for operating room staff, powered by Intel technologies, is designed to help surgical staff support the surgeon during each turn or phase of the procedure.

Caresyntax’s collaboration with Intel will bring data-driven surgery to the next level to meet the challenges of the operating room worldwide. The collaboration between Caresyntax and Intel represents a key milestone in the relationship between the two companies. Intel Capital became an investor in Caresyntax’s Series C funding round in 2021.

References:

[i] Phillips, Carswella DNP, APRN, AGPCNP-BC. Relationships between workload perception, burnout, and intent to leave among medical–surgical nurses. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare: June 2020 – Volume 18 – Issue 2 – p 265-273. doi: 10.1097/XEB.0000000000000220. Link to study.

[ii] Gamble, Molly. Hospitals are closing ORs on a daily basis, even without a COVID-19 surge. Becker’s Hospital Review. 26 Jul 2022. Accessed 26 Jul 2022. Link to article.