Centro tecnológico Cartif

Hospital services

The health management systems have acquired great importance in a time when the concept of “healthcare quality” continues to spread and the optimization of all the patient-related services is sought. Thus, the current trend proposes the complete computerization of the Hospital Services –patients’ admission, resources and medical consumables management, staff administration, etc.– as well of the Helathcare Management –laboratories, pharmacy, surgical centers, etc.– including the hospitalization sectors, both the medical treatments as the nursing.

ICUs

Development and installation of an assistance system for the integral analysis of patients on intensive care units (ICU) at the Teaching Clinical Hospital of Valladolid.

Between the years 2004 and 2007, a project has been carried out for the development, installation, and adjustment of an assistance system for the integral analysis of patients in ICUs based on the use of technologies, control, and communications, which sustain the implementation of an assortment of computer applications to give support to the service staff and ease the quality improvement of the care received by the patient.

This project was done in collaboration with the staff of the Intensive Care Services, Maintenance, and Electromedicine and Informatics at the Teaching Clinical Hospital (HCH from the Spanish “Hospital Clinico Universitario”) of Valladolid, in whose Intensive Care Unit the project is currently installed.

Automatic medicine dispensing at hospitals

The automatic medicine dispensing devices are advanced systems that allow automating the distribution, administration, and control of medicines within the different units at a hospital (hospital pharmacy, operating rooms, ICUs, floor services, etc.) and therefore, call for the interconnection between one or more computer systems.

These interconnections could include admission, transference, and data download systems; billing, pharmacy computer system or patient care data system.

The control system for the automatic medicine dispensing is made up by a central personal computer for control, which is usually placed in the hospital Pharmacy Service, and various stations or devices that are laid out over all the whole hospital. Each station is controlled by its own computer, and works on a similar way as an ATM. Presently, our activity is focused on two main objectives:

Operating Rooms

The developments applicable to this field are focused on the analysis, design, and integration of tracking, navigation, and intervention subsystems within a robotized environment of computer assisted surgery, with particular emphasis on orthopedic surgery and traumatology.

Elaboration of a framework for the development of CAOS (Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery) architectures

The goal of the framework we are developing (SIROCO: acronym from the Spanish of Robotized Systems on Computer Assisted Surgery) is to provide with criteria, tools, and methods for the development of architectures that allow the efficient integration of subsystems and components within an environment of computer assisted surgery.

Analysis and development of monitoring and control strategies for the use of a robot during orthopedic surgical interventions

Specifically, we have centered our work on the application of a robotized system for bone drilling, needed during interventions to repair of long bones fractures. This task is necessary to stabilize bone fragments with intramedullary plates or nails, and its complexity comes from the need of high-precision execution, taking into account features such as the force applied, and the rotation and forward speeds in order to avoid damages on the tissue, e.g. breaks or necrosis due to excessive heating.

With the aim of easing the execution of this task, with the help of a robotized system, we have designed and installed a control architecture, using the methodology and principles of the SIROCO framework, over the commercial driver of a Staubli robot. This control architecture allows implementing control algorithms using force feedback that are apt for controlling the drill’s performance. The force feedback is used to achieve the appropriate precision and safety during the procedure. The forces and torques measured on-line are used as reference to change the forward speed of the drill and to guarantee that they don’t exceed the force threshold previously defined.

Projects

UCI (Spanish acronym for Intensive Care Unit)

Development and installation of an assistance system for the integral analysis of patients on intensive care units (ICU) at the Teaching Clinical Hospital of Valladolid.