Ingo Aicher, Managing Director of JAV Medical Systems, walks us through the firm’s first near net zero integrated operating theatre system, ITOT – The “Integrated Theatre Of Things” that reduces CO2 emissions and provides cost savings
JAV Medical Systems is a UK-based specialist company that has been delivering operating theatre integrations across Europe and the UK for over 15 years.
The company’s success in a market dominated by major medical corporations is based on its ability to respond to innovative technology trends quickly. Helping the NHS achieve net zero 2045 while delivering technology to improve workflows and reduce waiting lists is at the heart of JAV.
New, greener, high-tech surgery
Healthcare accounts for 4% of UK greenhouse emissions and similar levels across the globe. Hospitals account for a large share of this output, with operating theatres contributing heftily to hospitals’ CO2 emissions. Several factors are involved, such as heavy use of high-energy devices, anesthetic gases, high churn of intraoperative single-use equipment, instrument decontamination, and many others.
invasive surgeries, whether traditional or robotic and the requirement for more remote and online teaching and training capabilities, integrated operating theatre systems are seeing a real upturn.
Whilst improving theatre capabilities and efficiencies helps to reduce the UK backlog, one of the downsides of deploying more technology into the operating theatres usually comes with an increasing carbon footprint.
With the climate crisis high on everyone’s agenda and a net zero healthcare pledge around the Globe, JAV is setting out to deliver the benefits of the latest technology with zero additional carbon footprint and helping to reduce the carbon footprint by refurbishing existing installations.
JAV Medical Systems is proud to have brought the first near net zero integrated operating theatre system, ITOT – The “Integrated Theatre of Things,” to the UK. Several flagship systems are already in operation in the UK and across Norway, and over 50 are currently in construction in Norway alone.
So, how much of a difference can ITOT make?
It took 18 months of research and development to optimise the overall system design to increase its technological performance and decrease energy consumption to below 75% of comparable systems. Additionally, tremendous efforts were made to CO2 optimise the supply chain, evaluating better energy performance components, finding suppliers with easier recyclable or less packaging, evaluating the use of recycled materials as part of new devices, reviewing our own shipping and transport, developing smarter software, reducing the total numbers of overall components used, using less cabling and natural resources in the building process and ensuring a circular approach to electronics component lifecycle management and offsetting any residual CO2 impact.
Increasing operational efficiencies allows for more surgeries to take place in the same timeframe, driving down waiting lists and decreasing the energy usage and CO2 footprint per surgery.
We have examined and analysed all angles within our remit to bring our tech towards net zero. Our new systems measure ongoing energy performance and determine if residual energy consumption shows any deviation or increase from original targets. We will invest in offset measures for each installed system while continually striving to better the system overall.
One of the biggest and most welcome side effects of the new technology is the overall reduction in operating costs, as electricity consumption is driven down to below a quarter of its original cost. Savings of up to £5,000 in running costs per annum per operating theatre make the case for green investment into a new net zero Integrated system even more compelling.
Naturally, the new “integrated theatre of things” comes with all the advantages of superior secure remote teaching capabilities and secure remote surgical assistance. It captures still images and videos of procedures with automated and artificial intelligence- supported edit capabilities. It stores intraoperative video and image footage directly to the digital patient file for improved post-operative care and surgical analytics.
JAV at the forefront of operating theatre systems integration
All systems deployed by JAV Medical are vendor-neutral and can interconnect with any surgical device manufacturer’s imaging equipment. The systems are customised to each hospital, surgical speciality, and surgical team’s specific requirements.
Whilst a high-end theatre is only marginally more expensive, the savings in operating costs make it a smart investment over the system’s lifecycle. A new smart integrated operating theatre is not just an environmentally sound investment but also much cheaper overall due to the decreased running costs.
Achieve net zero targets and get the latest futureproof technology available whilst saving thousands.
JAV is at the forefront of operating theatre systems integration and has recently been recognised for its focus and determination on delivering greener and better technology. Winning the 2024 Healthcare Award for Innovation at the prestigious Innovation Awards in Barcelona at the end of January was a highlight for us. This major world-class award validates and reassures us that the Vision and challenging work are worthwhile.
Contact JAV Medical Systems and find out how we can help you to make surgery greener together and save the planet.
JAV Medical Systems
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