Saturday, December 26, 2015

NYTimes: A Surgery Center That Doubles as an Idea Lab

From the moment patients register at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's new $300 million, state-of-the-art outpatient surgery center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, they will be taking part in a test bed for emerging ideas in patient experience design, health care technology and data tracking.

Instead of waiting in a long line to register, patients at the new center, the Josie Robertson Surgery Center, will be handed plastic tracking badges that will broadcast their locations in real time, allowing intake coordinators to come directly to them wherever they are sitting. Inspired by modern hotel lobbies and co-working spaces, the family waiting room has semiprivate seating areas and mobile device charging stations. And for people who become antsy while their loved ones are in surgery, there is an Xbox nook for fitness activities.

Operating rooms, too, incorporate "the most advanced technology," according to marketing materials, including the latest surgical robots and "super-high-definition monitors" to display anatomical imaging.

More ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/technology/a-surgery-center-that-doubles-as-an-idea-lab.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

At a Memorial Sloan Kettering outpatient surgery center in Manhattan, innovations include data tracking and other techniques to improve care, but some worry about transparency.