Intra-Operative Surgical Instrument Tracking with Radio-Frequency Identification

Abstract

As data revolutionizes supply chains across diverse industries, healthcare lags. Sensor systems have struggled to automate the capture of actionable data without impeding clinical workflows. This work focuses on the development of a radio-frequency identification system to track surgical instruments in the operating room. The system was developed to integrate into existing infrastructure without impacting the delivery of care. In the background, it collects data that can be used to measure the presence of a surgical instrument, infer use, and predict location. This novel data was leveraged to eliminate unnecessary instrument supplies and begins to enable analytics describing how surgery is performed.