2024

Successful Proof-of-Concept Experiment for Remote Surgical Support and Educational Use of Surgical VideosUsing the “OPeDrive” Surgical Record System and “MEC Direct🄬”:
Launching a Low Latency and Highly Secure Educational Platform for Healthcare Professionals

Oct. 08, 2024
Marubeni Corporation
International University of Health and Welfare
OPE×PARK Inc.
NTT Communications Corporation

Marubeni Corporation (hereinafter, “Marubeni”), OPE×PARK Inc. (hereinafter, “OPE×PARK”), International University of Health and Welfare (hereinafter, “IUHW”), and NTT Communications Corporation (hereinafter, “NTT Com”) have successfully conducted a proof-of-concept experiment (hereinafter, “the experiment”) in which experienced surgeons remotely supported young surgeons using the surgical record system “OPeDrive”*1 and “MEC Direct🄬,”*2 which enables highly secure communication. Furthermore, by storing sensitive surgical video data on the highly secure “docomo MEC🄬*3 platform, the experiment confirmed that the platform can be utilized to enable secure access to educational content from anywhere in Japan.
Based on the results of the experiment, NTT Com will begin providing an educational platform for healthcare professionals (hereinafter, “the service”) that allows doctors to learn advanced medical technology from anywhere in Japan, and aims to contribute to the promotion of education for young doctors and doctors in rural areas as well as the improvement of treatment techniques for rare diseases.

1. Background of the Experiment
In the field of regional healthcare in Japan, various challenges have arisen, such as a significant shortage of doctors and their uneven distribution across regions and medical specialties. To address these issues, implementing remote surgical support is crucial to alleviating regional healthcare disparities, promoting the training of doctors who will lead the next generations, and reducing their workload.
The experiment proved successful in providing surgical support regardless of location and utilizing surgical images obtained with advanced technologies, such as 5G and a surgical recording system, for medical education purposes.

2. Overview of the Experiment
The experiment was conducted using the IUHW Narita Hospital (hereinafter, “Narita Hospital”) and IUHW Mita Hospital (hereinafter, “Mita Hospital”) as field sites. The procedure for the experiment was as follows:

  1. Simulated video footage representing an intraoperative scenario at Narita Hospital was stored in “OPeDrive” and transmitted to doctors at Mita Hospital via “MEC Direct🄬.”
  2. Based on the transmitted footage, Mita Hospital provided guidance to a surgeon at Narita Hospital, and an evaluation was conducted to measure the transmission delay between the communication and receipt of said guidance.
  3. The surgical support video was stored on “docomo MEC🄬” and evaluated to see if it could be viewed from Mita Hospital as educational content while maintaining security.

As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the video transmission delay was less than 500 milliseconds (0.5 seconds), which enables its use for surgery support and medical education. Additionally, it was confirmed that, by storing data on the “docomo MEC🄬” platform, the surgical videos could be securely stored and viewed from anywhere in Japan without using the Internet.

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Roles of Each Company in the Experiment

Company/Organization Name Main Role
Marubeni Overall coordination and management of the experiment
IUHW (Mita Hospital, Narita Hospital) Provision of the fields for the experiment (operating room, conference room)
OPE×PARK System construction and equipment provision for the experiment
NTT Com Construction of 5G base stations, provision of 5G lines, devices, and communication systems such as “docomo MEC®,” and consideration for commercialization

3. Providing an Educational Platform for Healthcare Professionals
This service enables remote surgical support and medical education by transmitting surgical videos to remote locations with low latency and high security. Not only can it transmit surgical videos in real-time, but it also allows for secure storage and editing of the videos for use as educational materials. However, patient consent is required for the use of intraoperative footage.

■ Sales Start Date: October 8, 2024
■ Usage Fees: Please contact your NTT Com sales representative or use the inquiry contact information below.
■ For Inquiries: Please contact your NTT Com sales representative or use the inquiry contact information below.

Marubeni, OPE×PARK, IUHW, and NTT Com will utilize their respective technologies, knowledge, and resources to contribute to the overall development of healthcare through improving the quality of regional healthcare and medical education.

*1 OPeDrive is a product that enables the recording and editing of surgical videos and case study learning. It can record the surgical field along with medical device footage in real time, and allows for the insertion of bookmarks and comments through automatic voice recognition at important points during surgery.

*2 MEC Direct🄬 is an optional service for docomo MEC🄬. It achieves low-latency and high-security communication by optimizing the communication path through direct connection between devices and the MEC platform.

*3 docomo MEC🄬 is a service that improves real-time performance and security by placing servers as close as possible to devices such as smartphones, thereby shortening the communication distance compared to general public clouds, and conducting communications within a proprietary network.

Note: docomo MEC and MEC Direct are registered trademarks of NTT DOCOMO, Inc.

Contact Information for Inquiries

Company Name Contact Information and Representative
Marubeni Corporation Inquiry Form
OPE×PARK Inc. system-support@opexpark.co.jp
NTT Communications Corporation ・5G & IoT service Department Platform Service Division
opedrive@ml.ntt.com

・Corporate Planning Department Public Relations Office
pr-cp@ntt.com

Note: For inquiries regarding the experiment fields (Narita Hospital, Mita Hospital), please contact OPE×PARK.

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