Index AR Solutions has partnered with Riverside Health System for the development of augmented reality (AR) apps to keep patients safe and health care workers more efficient.
Image: The first-of-its-kind augmented reality app from Index AR Solutions and Riverside Health System will help assure proper cleaning of endoscopes. Photo: Courtesy of Business Wire.
Index AR Solutions is an American enterprise AR solutions provider, creating applications that make workers more capable and productive.
The first app being developed by the companies under the collaboration utilizes AR and other visual technologies on a tablet.
It will help medical technicians visualize, more rapidly learn and easily follow the manual step-by-step process for cleaning a popular type of endoscope used in an estimated half-million gastrointestinal medical procedures every year.
Technicians are required to follow step by step instructions via AR and imagery that is overlaid on the actual endoscope device or displayed in 3D imagery.
Index stated that helpful safety warnings, 3D animations, short videos and written instructions have also been built into the app, notifying users in the context of corresponding steps.
The app will also streamline recordkeeping, which allows managers to automatically log user activity to ensure all the steps were completed and performed within the expected parameters.
Riverside Health System Business and Venture Development current senior vice president and neurosurgeon James Lesnick said: “While Riverside Health System has not experienced issues related to the cleaning and reprocessing of reusable endoscope devices, this is an issue that has caught the attention of the medical community, the public and the press.
“As medical practitioners, it is our responsibility to always look for ways to improve patient care and here, with Index AR Solutions, we believe we have found a way to bring the power of AR technology to bear in hospitals across the U.S. to benefit patients and technicians alike.”
The endoscope cleaning app is the latest in a series of AR product offerings from Index AR called SuperApps.
Riverside is also considering other possible use cases where AR can offer measureable enhancements in safety, quality, speed, knowledge retention and overall health care worker job satisfaction.
Once the endoscope cleaning app has completed development within Riverside Health System, other hospital systems throughout the US will be invited to demo and license the app for their own use.