How the camera protects privacy
ORbserve is built so that a theatre team can agree to it. This page explains what the camera sees, what it keeps and what it never does.
In short: ORbserve looks at areas of the theatre, works out what is happening, keeps the times, and throws the picture away. No video is stored, nobody is identified, and staff can pause it.
What the camera looks at
One camera above the operating table watches a few marked areas: the instrument tray, the back table, the surgical site, the head of the table and the door. ORbserve looks for activity in those areas, such as the drapes coming off or the room being cleaned. It is not built to recognise faces or identify anyone.
What happens to each picture
Each frame is analysed on a small computer inside the theatre, in a fraction of a second, and then discarded. Pictures are not recorded, not sent to the cloud and not viewed by anyone at ORbserve.
What is kept
- Times of events, such as "patient out, 14:02" or "incision, 09:26"
- How long each part of a changeover took
- During a pilot, a log of sterile-field events the system would have flagged (observation mode, not shown to anyone in theatre)
- When the system was paused, and any corrections staff made
It keeps no names, no NHS numbers, no audio and no images.
Who can see it
The theatre manager and theatre coordinator see the reports. The data belongs to the hospital, and the hospital decides who else sees it. We expect ORbserve to act as a data processor on the hospital's instructions, which is set out in the DPIA.
Staff stay in control
- ORbserve goes in only after the theatre team has agreed to it, with notices in the theatre.
- Reports describe the changeover, not individual people. There are no staff scores.
- Staff can pause it with one button. The pause is logged so the gap in the data is explained.
- A person always confirms closure, so a wrong guess never moves a patient.
Patients
Patients may be in view on the operating table, but the system does not identify them or store any image of them. We will help the hospital update its patient information notice before a pilot starts.
How long data is kept
During a pilot, event logs stay on the theatre computer. At the end, the hospital receives a copy and the device is wiped, unless the hospital chooses to continue.
What ORbserve never does
- Record or stream video or audio
- Connect to patient records during a pilot
- Score or rank individual staff
- Sell data or share it with third parties
- Use a hospital's data to train its software without the hospital's written agreement
Questions
Email alannam@orbserve.co.uk. Information governance leads can also read the one-page security and IG summary.