What does OR.NET mean?
OR.NET e.V. is a registered association bringing together industrial specialists, clinical staff and researchers, all intent on realizing open and cross-manufacturer integration of medical technology in the OR, intensive care units and other areas of acute medicine. We want to establish safe and dynamic device-to-device communication using state-of-the-art information and communication technology. Medical equipment is automatically integrated in a device network within the OR, the ICU or the emergency room via plug-and-play.
Following 15 years of research, the enormous relevance of our approach became transparent in the OR.NET project funded by the German Ministry BMBF (until 2016), not least through the participation of more than 50 directly funded project
partners and an equal number of associated project partners. The technical outcome of this project was made public in 2018, in the form of three IEEE 11073 SDC standards enabling manufacturers to make their products integrable.
Establishing these SDC standards is a declared goal of our association. In addition to prominent publicity work, it identifies and discusses key topics in individual workgroups. Topics currently being addressed through the set-up of demonstration and test centres include requirements for the open network regarding approval, development and initial operation.
Vision
With integrated medical systems we are creating a fundamental prerequisite for achieving safety, high quality and the best patient care.
Mission
We enable our members to implement openly networked, cross-manufacturer systems by driving forward the standardisation process and developing approval strategies.
Background
The ever-increasing number of computer-based devices and instruments in the OR and hospital is leading to a need to integrate medical equipment, systems and software solutions in an overall infrastructure. The wide variety of devices and the information they entail can be integrated within this connected set-up via dynamic networking to provide new and innovative functions.
The overriding goal of technical developments in medicine should be the improvement of quality and safety in healthcare.
The safety and usability of networked medical products and IT systems represent both a key quality criterion and an element of risk management. Consideration of this aspect is rapidly gaining prominence within the field of risk management for medical products due to increasingly complex technology and the growing complexity of human-machine interaction in the medical environment.
