Medicine and music aren’t an obvious pair, but in a discussion between colleagues at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 Surgical Innovations Lab, experts in each field realized an interesting link between the two topics.
Gary Sutkin，医学博士, professor of surgery and associate dean of women’s health at the 威尼斯人娱乐城, has focused much of his research on surgical safety and mitigating errors in the operating room. Today he’s working to expand that research by teaming up with his colleague – and composer – Paul Rudy, MM, DMA, Curators’ Distinguished Professor and coordinator of composition at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 音乐学院, to study the effects of sound on patient safety in the operating room.
研究表明，降低医院的噪音水平对提高病人的安全有直接影响，但在手术室里，除了手术团队之间的谈话外，手术所需的设备也会产生噪音。 Though some sounds are necessary -- such as the noise of the oxygen saturation monitor, which creates the rapid high-pitched beep people may recognize from medical shows on television -- the noise created by people in the room often is not.
鲁迪和苏特金正在合作开发培训和手术方法，以减少一些噪音和相关风险。
“People have been trying to solve the problem of miscommunication in the operating room for 20 years and there hasn’t been any meaningful progress,” Sutkin says. “What I know is that we need brains other than those of researchers, surgeons and nurses to study the problem.”
Sutkin’s interest in collaborating with people who have expertise in areas outside of medicine, coupled with Rudy’s curiosity and ability to hear the operating room with fresh ears is already leading to interesting results.
By observing surgeries, Rudy recognized that surgeons’ work entails very fine motor movements and unwavering focus that requires them to keep their heads down. 他还观察到手术小组的其他成员都专注于自己的任务和责任。
“People have been trying to solve the problem of miscommunication in the operating room for 20 years and there hasn’t been any meaningful progress. What I know is that we need brains other than those of researchers, surgeons and nurses to study the problem.” —
“No one’s looking at the surgeon’s body language to figure out what’s needed,” Rudy says. “For example, the anesthesiologist is reading a screen. Much of the communication [the team receives] is coming through sound.”
尽管口头交流很重要，但他观察到，人们在手术室里制造的很多噪音对手术并不是至关重要的。
“Everyone is doing something necessary,” Rudy says. “But sometimes someone has to unpackage something in a hurry, and they can’t throw it in the trash can, so it ends up on the floor. Or someone picks up that big wad of plastic to get it out of the way and you can’t hear anything else over the noise. This has to be done - someone could trip over it - but if the surgeon needs to communicate something important to the anesthesiologist at that moment, the noise will mask the communication.”
Because of Rudy’s background as a musician, the amount of residual noise in the operating room came as a surprise.
“In rehearsals and in performances, no one makes any extra sound anywhere for any reason,” Rudy says. “Musicians carefully turn pages of sheet music so that the binder doesn't make any noise.”
He’s aware of the differences between the disciplines, but still notes there is room for improvement when it comes to eliminating some unnecessary noise in operating rooms. Rudy’s research has identified solutions to common disruptions that OR teams may not even notice.
“For example, in the operating room there are really heavy metal step stools,” Rudy says. “People tend to scoot them across the floor with their feet and it makes this really intense grating sound that may mask any kind of communication that is going on in the room.”
鲁迪明白，手术室里的医疗专业人员用脚移动凳子，因为他们需要保持双手无菌，但他想知道制造商是否意识到生产决策的后果。
“This research could lead to that awareness, and maybe even influence manufacturing standards.”
这样的观察会带来创新的机会，并提高安全性，这是Surgilab的核心使命，也是Sutkin希望像Rudy这样的同事进入手术室的原因。
“There’s value in having insight from brains other than researchers, surgeons and nurses. 保罗带来了丰富的知识和创造力。 And, surprisingly, to be honest, a scientific mind that contributes very well with this research.”
来自威尼斯人娱乐城名誉教授伊丽莎白·诺布尔博士的礼物帮助资助了这项研究合作。 诺布尔支持跨越不同研究领域的研究，因为她认为这使研究结果更可靠，更易于转移。
“Today most researchers would agree that cross-disciplinary research is valuable,” Noble says. “It stimulates new ways of thinking about different issues, especially when we’re talking about music and medicine which are not always assumed to go together.”
“This research is exactly what I hoped would occur. I’m very happy that Dr. Rudy has had this kind of success,” she added.