What a mess! I had entered the operating room and could hardly find the patient I was going to operate. Cables and wires were scattered all over the floor and all sorts of machinery took up the rest of the place while the nurses and the anesthesiologists were trying to find their way around the patient.
The impact of the observed mess was imprinted in my thoughts. Sometime after, I was traveling to attend an international conference on the other side of the world. While in the plane I got the opportunity to have a look into the airplanes cockpit. I remember immediately thinking “how neat and organized, why can’t an operating room be organized like this?”
That was 20 years ago.
Since then the idea of an operating room unit equipped with all the tools needed for a surgical procedure became a dream to realize. To create an integrated all in one unit (an ARK) with an intuitive human interphase and all the necessary safety features built in – just like an airplane.
The concept was presented at medical conferences worldwide, to NASA and to DARPA – the American military. All were enthusiastic. “What a wonderful idea”, they said. “Come back when you have it, we want it.”
This is now OARK, re-invents the operating room.
The timing could not be better, the technology has evolved in the direction of small integrated technological wonders, the integration age.
That’s the birth of the Operating ARK, OARK.
OARK, unique design principles are integration, modularity and mobility. Through those attributes OARK transforms todays operating rooms into multi-use operating rooms, with dramatically reduced costs, increased patient turnover, maximized human machine interface.
OARK is inspired by doctors for doctors.
Benedicte Dahlerup (MD)
