Revolutionizing Eye Surgery with Advantech's AI Tech
25-12-2024
Background
3C products have become indispensable in the digital age. Modern individuals spend extended hours using computers, smartphones, and tablets, leading to an increased frequency of close-range eye usage. This trend has resulted in a rise in ophthalmic diseases, consequently driving demand for eye-related examinations and surgeries. To address the growing demand for ophthalmic care, an international ophthalmic surgery equipment manufacturer has actively advanced its product iteration plans. By integrating Advantech's POC-8 medical panel PC and the USM-300 medical-grade edge AI computer into its high-end surgical microscope equipment, the manufacturer has achieved precise and swift identification of lesions. These devices also enable complete recording of surgical procedures and real-time transmission of images to other medical systems, helping doctors safeguard eye health.
Enhancing Microscope Technology by Integrating Advantech Medical Products
This ophthalmic surgery equipment manufacturer, with over 80 years of history, specializes in developing and producing contact lenses, eye examination instruments, and surgical equipment, distributing its products to over 180 countries worldwide.Among its ophthalmic surgical devices, a high-end surgical microscope specifically designed for eye imaging employs an electronic microscope integrated with Advantech's POC-8 medical panel PC. Through the microscope's imaging system, the patient's eye images are projected onto a computer screen. This setup eliminates the need for doctors to rely on the small eyepiece of a traditional microscope. Instead, they can view larger and clearer images on the POC-8 screen, facilitating quicker and more precise identification of surgical sites, thereby improving success rates and reducing surgery times.
To further optimize the surgical experience for both doctors and patients, the manufacturer upgraded the microscope's imaging system with next-generation lighting and optical designs. Simultaneously, it updated the hardware, upgrading the POC to POC-8 and introducing the USM-300 medical-grade edge AI computer. This combination enhances the microscope's autofocus capabilities, reducing the frequency of manual adjustments due to patient eye movement. It also enables full recording of surgical images, transmission to other ophthalmic surgical systems, and integration into medical information systems, improving treatment workflows and post-operative monitoring efficiency.
Advantech Product Manager Jerry Hsiao explains, "The POC-8 and USM-300 share the same motherboard, which allows the manufacturer to integrate these devices into the surgical microscope equipment without redeveloping hardware. Each plays a distinct role: the POC-8 handles positioning and focusing—whether via system autofocus or manual adjustment—using GPU computation to track focal points and display them on the screen. Meanwhile, the USM-300 collects comprehensive surgical images and facilitates external transmission."
Over 10 Years of Collaboration Make Advantech the Ideal Partner
"The collaboration with this ophthalmic surgery equipment manufacturer on medical panel PCs spans over a decade. Advantech's product stability, long-term supply capability, and after-sales service have been the foundation for this enduring partnership," says CH Wang, Advantech Product Manager. During this period, Advantech not only consistently supplied components but also proactively arranged professional teams to assist with engineering changes when some components faced discontinuation, demonstrating a robust and trustworthy partnership.
With rapid advancements in IT technology, the existing medical panel PC equipped with an Intel 5th Gen CPU and a single image capture card could no longer meet the computational demands of next-generation lighting technology. This necessitated new hardware. The strong foundation of past collaboration and Advantech's product and service advantages made it the preferred partner for hardware upgrades.
From a product perspective, Advantech not only provides compliant medical panel PCs and edge AI computers but also offers solutions with shared motherboards. This enables the manufacturer to use a unified software architecture and API interface, significantly reducing development time, hardware-software integration, and maintenance costs.
Advantech's single-window service for all hardware maintenance further enhances efficiency. When hardware issues arise, the manufacturer only needs to coordinate with Advantech, saving communication costs and significantly shortening problem resolution time, thus improving the overall efficiency of the surgical microscope equipment.
Customization for Practical Needs
Second, the motherboard design was adjusted. When this ophthalmic equipment manufacturer first approached Advantech, the latter was in the development phase of its medical panel PCs. This allowed certain functional requirements to be incorporated into standard specifications, reducing customization costs. For instance, the manufacturer requested ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory functionality. Advantech adjusted the motherboard circuitry to enable automatic error detection and correction during data access, ensuring system stability. "Although modifying the motherboard design increased costs, Advantech committed to meeting customer expectations," CH Wang emphasizes.
Jerry Hsiao shares a customization example for the USM-300. Since the manufacturer uses mobile carts for its surgical microscope equipment, with a hard-shell enclosure beneath the cart for the USM-300, space constraints necessitated repeated adjustments to the USM-300's design. For example, internal components were reorganized using stacking and interleaving methods to optimize placement while maintaining thermal efficiency. The USM-300's rectangular exterior was reshaped, with corner cutouts enabling it to fit seamlessly into the enclosure. The power button was also repositioned alongside the I/O panel for easier maintenance.
Future Prospects
Advantech aims to deepen its collaboration with the ophthalmic surgery equipment manufacturer, extending beyond surgical microscopes to other surgical devices. Together, they hope to build a more comprehensive smart medical ecosystem, delivering high-quality and holistic healthcare services to patients.