Concept of iterative optimization of minimally invasive surgery

The interconnection of therapy devices and the associated intelligent usage of available information is a key element for future improvements of medical therapies. Today, the success of an operation is determined by the quality of the therapy devices in connection with the individual knowledge and skills of the surgeon. A novel approach for the automatic, data based enhancement of a modern surgical technique is developed by a research association of clinical, academic and industrial partners. The concept of the project AFluCoMIS is applied to the minimally invasive surgery. The basic idea can be summarized as an increased usage of available data during an intervention. This information can be used to build an assistance system for the clinical staff which supports the surgeon with automatic device configuration, reference value settings and provides monitoring and safety features. A second innovation in the concept is derived from a postoperative correlation analysis between the course of the intervention and the clinical result. Knowledge can be gained from statistical data and improve following interventions. As a result, experience from past interventions is automatically made available to all surgeons by applying the derived parameters to the device. The combination of the surgeon's individual experience and automatically accumulated knowledge improves continuously the conditions for a successful intervention.