This article was published in the ATUSALUD special issue of La Razón
Antonio Burgueño, director of the Venturi Project, states that it is essential to have technological solutions that increase resources and boost the efficiency of our health system.
With more than 25% of the population having completed all the vaccine guidelines, it is to be expected that the pandemic will give the National Health System a break. In fact, in such crucial departments as the ICUs, this situation is a reality. However, the consequences of COVID-19 are long, serious, and very worrying. The Venturi Project, which is analyzing in detail the state of the health system after the COVID-19 crisis, quantifies that more than one million people are waiting for surgery in Spain.
The health system’s collapse has affected those awaiting surgery and all patients waiting for a surgical indication. Based on the Venturi Project’s statistical studies, a hidden demand could be almost 500,000 people. Patients who will end up adding to the official waiting list figures of 685,175 patients.
This pressure on healthcare is unsustainable for the classic hospital model since just to absorb the unmet demand in 2019, more than 100 more operating theatres would be needed at full capacity for a year before the pandemic. This situation not only directly affects patients, but also professionals. For patients, the cancellations have affected their health: minor pathologies have become serious, quality of life has diminished, the pain has spread over time, … And on the other hand, healthcare professionals have to see how their struggle continues and now they must continue to do their utmost to reduce waiting lists or, at least, return to pre-pandemic figures.
This is a situation in which technology can play a fundamental role. As Burgueño states, ‘solutions are needed that additional resources and apply formulas capable of increasing performance. Several professionals, such as the president of the Spanish Association of Surgeons (AEC), Salvador Morales-Conde, or the president of the Spanish Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Pain Therapy (SEDAR), Javier García, have already warned in statements to the media that to return to normality and pre-pandemic surgical standards, surgical activity should be increased by 30%.
It is precisely in this increase in efficiency that ORvital could play a key role. MYSPHERA’s intelligent, multi-purpose solution can orchestrate and automate the processes involved in the surgical suite.
“ORvital increases surgical performance by more than 12%, which would be equivalent to a year of thirteen months for Spanish hospitals”.
According to results tested in reference hospitals such as Vall d’Hebron, where the solution was implemented in 2019, surgical efficiency increased by more than 12%, which in turn translated into an increase in the number of interventions of more than 16%. These figures could be even higher following the incorporation of a new intelligent algorithm into the system, which allows surgeries to be scheduled quickly, easily, and efficiently. All of this takes into account fundamental factors such as waiting lists, surgical availability, or maximum waiting time, thus making the most of all the center’s available resources.
If there is one element that the Spanish company MYSPHERA has been demonstrating since 2012, technology can revolutionize healthcare. Digitalization supported by IoT-RTLS systems makes it possible to take healthcare a step further by providing superior to human capacity tools. An evolution that the pandemic has shown is more than necessary, it is urgent.
Antonio Burgueño, Project Director
The Venturi Project is an initiative backed by more than twenty institutions: Circulo de la Sanidad, ASPE Sanidad Privada, ACESIMA, General Electric, Medtronic, Ribera Salud, ANCSSI, Diater, Servier, FEFE, Casaverde, Fundación Propatiens, Rotaty Club Sevilla Cartuja, Vigylia, among others. It is an “umbrella concept” which can be joined by those entities that believe that their message, their aims, and their steps are necessary to respond to the healthcare challenges facing Spain in each of its regions.
