A theatre camera staff can agree to
Computer vision can take admin off theatre teams. It only works if those teams trust it. Here are six rules we follow.
In 2024, nurses at a Boston hospital objected publicly to cameras that had been installed in their operating theatres without warning. Their objection was not to technology. It was to being watched without being asked. Any theatre camera that ignores that lesson will be switched off, however good its software is.
1. Agree it before it goes in
The theatre team hears what the camera does, and what it doesn't, before anything is installed. Notices go up in theatre. If the team says no, it doesn't go in.
2. Keep no video
Most of the value is in the times, not the pictures. ORbserve analyses each frame inside the theatre and discards it. What's kept is a line like "patient out, 14:02".
3. Watch areas, not people
The camera looks at the instrument tray, the back table, the operating table and the door. It is not built to recognise faces or track individuals.
4. No staff scores
Reports describe changeovers, not people. A late changeover is a system problem: someone wasn't called, or a patient wasn't ready. Blaming individuals would make staff work around the system instead of with it.
5. Staff can pause it
One button pauses the camera. The pause is logged, so a gap in the data has an explanation, but nobody needs permission to press it.
6. A person makes the decisions
The camera can notice that surgery is closing, but a person confirms closure before any patient is moved. For sterile-field alerts, the scrub nurse is paged and decides what to do. The operating surgeon is never interrupted.
We wrote these rules down so a theatre team can hold us to them. The full detail is on our privacy page.