Technology that lets surgeons, operating room staff, and medical researchers take videos of live surgical procedures bodes no room for compromise. In the early phases of designing our imaging equipment, we built several operating room prototypes that used standard definition (SD) video formats such as phase alternating line (PAL) and National Television System Committee (NTSC). But, user feedback quickly made it clear that only high definition (HD) would do.

Reasons for this are multifold. For one thing, to combat a disease or injury, surgical teams need as much pertinent, timely, and detailed information as possible. When this includes high-resolution close-ups of tissue, organs, and blood vessels being affected by the surgery, the surgeon's job is simpler and operation risks shift down. Surgical videos also document procedures as well as provide teaching tools for schools and other institutions. Moreover, surgeons often find it helpful to share images with colleagues and include videos in presentations at medical conferences.

Part of the design of our systems included evaluating several commercially available HD video cards. A video capture card called Blackmagic Design Intensity is widely used by Hollywood movie studios, movie studios, television broadcast companies, and professional videographers and provided the necessary industry-standard high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI). The technology supports deeper bit depths and full color resolution, eliminating banding and contouring problems in high-quality video. Our HD systems record video and still images directly from HD cameras strategically placed in operating rooms.

We make equipment that records detailed close-ups of internal body organs during surgery. For example, the DRSHD HD video recorder targets endoscopy surgery, while the HDMD system is for surgical microscopy (any procedure where a surgical microscope is used, such as neurosurgery or ophthalmic surgery), which needed video-capture technology small enough to fit on or inside a surgical microscope. The Blackmagic Intensity card's size makes integration straightforward.

The HD equipment both documents surgical procedures with videos and can also print high-resolution still images of procedures. The DRS system displays stunning, precisely detailed, images on a large video screen. State-of-the-art MPEG-4 video compression allows the production of clear, sharp images, even on large video screens. The technology records only the target area of the image in brilliant HD quality, which reduces the file size.

As part of the development strategy, we created the applications software in-house, based on years of feedback from surgeons and operating center staff. This seemed a better approach than doing research and development to create a new technology and then trying to find a market for it. The software lets surgical teams easily control all the features of the recording systems using touch-screen monitors. For instance, users can control video recording, make audio annotations, print still images captured directly from the HD video stream, burn video to CDs and DVDs, USB drives and external media, connect to DICOM servers, and select a network location to record video.

During the software design, special attention was paid to surgical workflow compatibility and ease of use because surgeons are often engaged in critical procedures and don't have the time to fuss with complicated devices that have steep learning curves. Whenever possible, our mantra is “simple is better.” Surgical teams should be able to focus on the patient and not worry about the equipment.