Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., August 20, 2008 Av 19, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:25 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Haldor tech warns docs before the lawsuit hits By Guy Griml Tags: medical equipment, Haldor Medical malpractice is a sore subject in the health-care establishment. The fear of lawsuits leads practitioners to prescribe costly treatments and tests that the patient may not necessarily need. But one unfortunately common problem leading to many damages suit isn't missing the diagnosis - it's forgetting a scalpel, sponge, gauze or other object inside the patient's body during surgery. The Israeli startup Haldor, in collaboration with O'Connor's of Singapore, which is a subsidiary of Wearnes, are feverishly working on a technological innovation that will detect cases of forgotten surgical equipment at the end of the operation and warn the surgeon. The OrLocate system is already undergoing feasibility testing at KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore. The Singapore government is providing some of the funding for testing. To date, the companies have raised about a million dollars for development. Haldor expects the first commercial systems to be launched in mid-2009, and projects revenues of $20 million in the first year. The company says that the incidence of foreign bodies left behind after operations was 1,500 a year in the U.S. alone. Advertisement The technology is based on RFID - radio-frequency identification - and counting. Today preventative methods are based mostly on the surgical nurses manually counting the surgical equipment, including disposables such as gauzes and sponges, before and after the procedure. The OrLocate system affixes an RFID tag to each and every item on the surgeon's tray. The inventory is uploaded into a computerized system that reads RFID codes. At the end of the operation, the system warns if any gear is missing. Affixing an RFID reader to the garbage disposal system in the operating room ensures that disposables are accounted for as well. "We are partners in a move to meet a real need, to prevent suffering among surgical patients and at the same time, to allow the surgical team to focus on the patient," says Haldor chairman Rubi Halberthal. He adds that the system makes the entire surgical procedure more efficient, saving the team time, the need for manpower to keep track of disposables and equipment, and easing the burden in the operating room. The health-care system can use saved money to carry out more surgery, he points out. Haldor is also conducting tests of its RFID equipment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Patients in the psycho-geriatric ward are given bracelets with RFID chips, to locate a given patient at any time. The technology is intended to prevent patients needing care from departing without supervision. If a patient with such a bracelet approaches the exit gate, an alarm goes off in the system. Halberthal says the company means to offer the system to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem as well. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Poor sports Here are the top 10 excuses for Israel's poor Olympics showing. Kafka the Zionist Remnants of Kafka's estate found in T.A. raise questions of his belief in Zionism.

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