Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pomeranian Medical University in Poland (PMU) wanted to redesign how they deliver knowledge to both the students and the scientific community while enhancing educational standards. When seamless education on-site became limited, virtual presence systems offered a new learning experience. Therefore PMU decided to implement in the university hospital Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Kliniczny Nr 2 Pomorskiego Uniwersytetu Medycznego a solution that addresses the challenge of remote collaboration with clinical experts and students – the Olympus medical virtual presence system MedPresence.

Meanwhile, a group of doctors from the hospital needed a reliable tool to improve teamwork during robotic surgeries, a critical factor for patient outcomes and safety. For this purpose, they are now using another Olympus solution – VaultStream.

Prof. Marcin Słojewski, Head of Urology and Urological Oncology Department, uses the VaultStream system routinely when performing operations with the daVinci system. “It helps us to analyze the videos of robotic procedures, for example, when a pathology report is available after the OP. This way, we can identify positive surgical margins and evaluate extracapsular penetration of the prostate.” This is another helpful application of the Olympus technology. A medical recorder nCare—the hardware component that allows access to the MedPresence and VaultStream system—makes it possible to review performed operations and manage medical content.

Prof. Słojewski lists the key benefits that his team gained: quality control, new education possibilities, and accurate documentation of the procedures. With MedPresence, the clinicians from the Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Kliniczny Nr 2 Pomorskiego Uniwersytetu Medycznego interact and communicate naturally, just as if they were in the room together, leading to increased clinical efficiency. The hospital can assemble teams of experts, including remote colleagues, medical students, and application trainers, to fully participate in the procedure room.

Krzysztof Turkiewicz, IT Specialist and Administrator in the Pomeranian Medical University Hospital, was involved in the technology implementation process. “Thanks to the integration with the secure MedPresence Cloud, the users log into the hospital system, so they don’t need extra logins and passwords. The authentification through the Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) ensures data safety and privacy,” says Turkiewicz. “For high broadcast stability, we decided to use LAN cable. Now the entire ecosystem works smoothly,” concludes Turkiewicz.

Currently, the both Olympus systems support the adoption of innovative surgical techniques and teamwork models, but the hospital is already planning to deploy it for modern education. This is now possible with the application of the MedPresence —authorized  students will able to participate virtually in the medical procedures and interact with the team in the operating room. The system enables asking questions in real-time, talking with surgeons, marking up and annotating images in real-time. Moreover, the system can be used to broadcast surgical procedures during seminars and scientific conferences.

Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Kliniczny Nr 2 Pomorskiego Uniwersytetu Medycznego serves as a clinical facility for the Pomeranian Medical University (PMU) that educates more than 4000 students. In 2020, the PMU was announced among the top ten universities in the national ranking PERSPEKTYWY and second among medical universities in Poland.