arrive at your facility prepackaged and pre-sterilized like a traditional
implant, saving valuable time, resources and storage space in the
reprocessing department.
Then there's the potential to 3D-print antimicrobial surgical instru-
ments. When scientists added an antimicrobial dye to cellulose
acetate, they were able to print instruments with light-activated
antimicrobial properties built into them. When they shined fluorescent
light on a pair of surgical tweezers they had printed, the tweezers'
antimicrobial properties activated and killed bacteria.
4
Next-generation construction
planning: see it before you believe it
The days of crowding around an unrolled blueprint in a confer-
ence room may also be coming to an end as virtual reality (VR) tech-
nology will offer perioperative leaders a "real-life" look at the potential
construction of their new reprocessing areas. What will the decontami-
nation room look like with 6 case carts loaded in the corner? How
many technicians will be able to comfortably fit in the supply picking
area? Architects will be able to hand department leaders a VR headset
and walk them through the entire workflow from start to finish with
realistic spatial representation to identify the kinds of planning deci-
sions that can be missed in today's 2D world of angles and inches.
Instead of imagining contingencies, they can be envisioned, rearranged
and envisioned again until all members of the team are satisfied —
before a single brick is laid.
5
Training courtesy of Google glass: putting the "tech"
back into technician
The sterile processing department of the future may also have
an entirely different on-boarding experience for new reprocessing
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