Balgrist building new research and teaching center

The medicine location of Zurich is to be boosted by the addition of a new surgical research and teaching center. Construction work on Operation Room X (OR-X) at Balgrist University Hospital started on January 26. The new center is expected to open for a test phase during the first quarter of 2023.

According to a press release, OR-X will open up new and exciting opportunities in the areas of surgical research, development and teaching. The hospital explains that it will offer opportunities to develop and validate new technologies on the basis of Augmented Reality, robotics and Artificial Intelligence. In this way, new technologies can be used in clinical applications more rapidly. Moreover, aspiring surgeons can learn in a realistic operating theatre and gain practical experiences.

“Modern surgical innovations and teaching should take place in as real an environment as possible, before being used to treat patients”, comments Mazda Farshad, Medical Director and Initiator of the OR-X, in an earlier press release issued by the hospital. “For this reason, we are building a simulated operating room, focused on orthopedics, but open to the field of surgery”, he adds. The OR-X is creating an infrastructure that, according to the hospital, will see Balgrist contribute “at the forefront of the development of surgical innovations”.