At the last Mexico Health Summit, I participated in a roundtable discussion related to smart hospitals, a concept that has been increasingly discussed in various healthcare forums. The reality is that in Mexico and around the world, hospitals that were built centuries ago are still in operation. For instance, the Purísima Concepción y de Jesús de Nazareno Hospital (“Hospital de Jesús”), founded in 1524, and in the United States, the Bellevue Hospital Center, which opened its doors in 1736.
I’ve had the opportunity to visit operating rooms in several cities around the world and learn about the latest advances in equipment and instrumentation necessary to ensure the precision and success of surgical procedures. It is evident that whether hospitals were built centuries ago or just ten years ago, operating rooms face challenges in accommodating constantly changing technology and ensuring they remain functional spaces that guarantee the safety of both patients and medical staff.
Operating rooms, as we know them today, date back to the mid-19th century when the arrival of anesthesia, asepsis, and antisepsis drastically transformed surgical practices.
In recent years, image-guided surgery has intensified the need for adapted rooms to accommodate these large-scale equipment.
Constructing new hospitals entails significant costs, making the renovation of existing hospital infrastructures an efficient option.
Whether in new or renovated hospitals, it is crucial to recognize that operating rooms must constantly evolve in terms of technology. Big data, robotics, augmented reality, and telemedicine are aspects that must be considered when conceptualizing these increasingly sophisticated spaces.
Rethinking the modern operating room and ensuring its proper functionality requires collaborative efforts among various specialists, including architects, biomedical engineers, systems engineers, medical technology developers, and medical staff.
In cases where the option is to renovate the operating rooms, it is essential to design with the goal of increasing heights, as most old operating rooms do not meet current recommendations. It is crucial to take advantage of adjacent spaces to install support technologies, as well as to maximize the use of room ceilings to avoid ground wiring that could cause accidents. Special consideration should be given to using materials for walls that facilitate cleaning and provide flexibility in design. Additionally, it is essential to use mechanical arms capable of supporting state-of-the-art medical devices and to pay careful attention to lighting and noise control.
All the above must be complemented with a strong vision for the future to create a modular, flexible, and versatile surgical environment that can adapt to technological advances and changing surgical needs. This space should be designed to maintain the humanization of patient care, even in scenarios where the patient may be the only human present in the room.
As Mary Shelley said in her book Frankenstein: “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change”
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