Olympus: Perfecting the art of integration with Australia’s first glass modular procedure rooms at QEII Jubilee hospital

By ahhb
Monday, 16 March, 2015

Recently, Olympus introduced Australia’s first fully integrated glass modular procedure rooms at QEII Jubilee Hospital in Brisbane, QLD, sett ing a new benchmark for procedure room technology and design. These state -of-the art ENDOALPHA endoscopy rooms incorporate the latest technology developed by Olympus across multiple functional areas.

Enclosed in spectacular blue glass walls aimed at substantially increasing the image clarity of the procedural monitor, decreasing wear and tear of the room, reducing room cleaning time, as well as creating a working environment that delights staff, the new ENDOALPHA procedure rooms contain an undeniable and “instant wowfactor” upon first impression.
Metro South Hospital and Health Service Board Chairman, Terry White AO, stated the following regarding the ENDOALPHA procedure rooms:
“The new QEII Hospital Endoscopy Suite is the most advanced suite in Australia, with a focus on not only treating disease, but also preventing it”
From an education and broadcasting standpoint, physicians can utilise the Full High Definition video conferencing, video streaming and recording capability, choosing from a variety of image sources including a High Definition in-light camera, to broadcast consultation and education sessions or live cases internally throughout the hospital, the Queensland Health network or worldwide.
Furthermore, at the most recent and internationally renowned Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a key theme to emerge was the burgeoning sector of “home automation technologies”. The show was overwhelmed with products that allow centralised control, from intuitive and familiar user interfaces, of everyday devices as simple as a thermostat, smoke detector or even a light bulb.
The QEII ENDOALPHA procedure rooms capitalise on this emerging consumer trend and contain automation technology specifically aimed at streamlining workflow and efficiency. This includes the ability to control all medical and non-medical equipment devices via a centralised touch screen, featuring the beautiful “Olympus HomeScreen” user interface, designed to replicate the familiarity and simplicity of smartphone and tablet user interfaces in all ENDOALPHA procedure and operating rooms.
Furthermore, the rooms contain the ability to pre-program “Scenes”, effectively pre-sets which allow users to configure the medical equipment, documentation system and audio visual components of the rooms via a single touch of a button. All these elements combined have contributed to a large spike in the number of procedures that the site can now conduct.
Metro South Hospital and Health Service Board Chairman, Terry White AO stated the following regarding the increased case capacity the new ENDOALPHA procedure rooms will facilitate:
“QEII Hospital’s Endoscopy Unit was previously seeing 1200 patients per year, however it now has the capacity to see more than 5000 patients per year, which will make a significant impact to the waiting list in the district.”
From a medical equipment standpoint, the QEII ENDOALPHA procedure rooms are equipped with the revolutionary EVIS EXERA III – the highly advanced diagnostic imaging platform which allows physicians to see the interior of the body with amazing clarity, to help diagnose disease at its earliest stage.
EXERA III combined with Narrow Band Imaging (NBI), a technology unique to Olympus which enhances visualization of the capillary network using two narrow wavelengths of light (blue and green) to highlight capillaries on mucosal surfaces and mucosal microstructural patterns, assists clinicians in identifying healthy and abnormal tissue increasing the likelihood of better patient outcomes.
QEII Jubilee Hospital anticipates that with the ENDOALPHA technology in place, they are in strong strategic position to capitalise on the coming internet-enabled health revolution that will see modern infrastructure projects such as the NBN provide hospitals with opportunities for telemedicine and remote consulting, whilst providing clinical staff with an advanced technology-rich workspace that brings functionality that is rapidly being taken up in the consumer space, to the procedure room.