cases where you work on both sides of the table, and there is no light
box to move. LED lights do have their downsides, though. Battery life
is one concern some have, though I've found that after a few weeks
battery life is easily predictable, anticipated and not problematic. If I
know I'll need a new battery pack, it's easily "hot-swapped" in 30 sec-
onds or less by the circulating nurse. Additionally, LED bulbs do "age"
and can become more blue-hued with time. In our trial, we found that
a light temperature or coloration of 5200-5500K was ideal.
3. Conduct a thorough trial
There are 2 ways not to buy your headlights — purchasing based off
of price and lux number alone, or going to a trade show and picking
out one that seems bright and comfortable. A trial is the only way to
truly see what works and what doesn't.
Here's what we did. We brought in 12 vendors to set up a mini-trade
show in the boardroom at the hospital. Administration, biomedical
engineering, surgical room nurses, surgical techs, assistants and sur-
geons spent an entire morning trialing the devices. We then took their
fantastic input and trimmed the field to 4 devices.
Then, a select number of physicians trialed those 4 devices in sur-
gery. Each surgeon used the headlight for a minimum of 5 to 6 hours
in the OR — or a full day's worth of a variety of cases. Personally, I
used each model for 7 days. This really helped me see the nuances
with each option — how the color affects the tissue, luminescence,
spot fill, beam focus and compatibility with my through-the-lens (TTL)
and flip-up surgical loupes. I also could look at simple, but important,
factors like wearability, ergonomics and how often I would "bump
heads" with my surgical assistant.
Not every surgeon was involved with our trial, but that was okay. It
ensured those involved were passionate about choosing the right
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