Video screens that most people would love to have in a home entertainment center are improving efficiency and patient care in UAB Hospital’s state-of-the-art operating rooms.

The new hospital’s ORs are now outfitted with up to five high-definition-ready LCD flat-panel monitors. Surgeons and surgical staff use them to simultaneously view X-rays, electrocardiograms, CT and MRI scans, biopsy images, and other images and patient data.

The surgical team also can watch several live camera views from within their operating room or another operating room and exchange information with other consulting surgeons who may not be present.

The high-tech system can help shorten the time a patient is in surgery, too. For example, a surgeon performing a biopsy can send the specimen to a pathologist elsewhere in the hospital, then an image of the results can be quickly sent back to the OR monitors. The surgeon can then immediately determine if the biopsied tissue’s edges are cancer free or if more surgery is needed. Previously, the surgeon would have to “break scrub” and go outside the OR to see the results, or the pathologist would have to come to the OR.

The surgical video management system makes UAB Hospital one of the most integrated surgery centers in the world. It is just one more way UAB is using the latest technology for the most advanced patient care.

For more information about this new technology, visit www.uabhealth.org/virtualtour/or.