A Leeds-based research centre is developing a new simulated operating theatre designed to test surgical innovations before they are used in NHS hospitals.
The facility, called SUSTAIN (Sustainability and Simulation Theatre for Academia and Industry), is being developed by the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care, based at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in partnership with the University of Leeds.
The SUSTAIN facility is currently being developed and fitted out, with specialist installation work required to create the simulated operating theatre, ahead of completion which is expected later this year.
Once complete, the facility will replicate a real operating theatre environment, allowing clinicians, researchers and industry partners to trial new surgical technologies, procedures and workflows in realistic conditions.
The aim of the surgical simulation testbed is to assess how innovations perform in practice, including safety, efficiency, use of resources and environmental impact, as well as their potential to reduce waste in surgical care.
Alongside the simulation work, researchers at BehaviourLab, a Leeds-based group studying how healthcare innovations are implemented in practice, are examining how new technologies are adopted within the NHS, including the practical and organisational factors that influence uptake in routine care.
This includes how new systems fit into existing workflows, how staff interact with them, and how decisions are made around adoption in clinical settings.
SUSTAIN is being developed to address a common gap in healthcare innovation, where technologies that perform well in trials are not always successfully integrated into routine hospital workflows.