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Hybrid OR featured on 'Chicago Med' deployed in Wisconsin

Posted at 10:25 PM, Oct 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-11 14:46:49-04

The Oct. 10 episode of "Chicago Med" featured cutting-edge medical equipment developed in southeast Wisconsin.

The equipment is being used in real life to save lives at hospitals like Aurora St. Luke's.

The hospital opened its newest hybrid OR one month ago.

"Any time we have new technology that's introduced into the department the physicians actually get very excited about it, the team members get excited about it," said Christopher Koblosky, director of interventional services at Aurora St. Luke's.

Koblosky and the staff navigate one of the top ten busiest cardiac cath labs in the country, "We actually performed about 10,700 cases last year."

The OR is equipped with state-of-the-art tools like a robotic X-ray machine.

"This system actually moves out of the way so if there is a more invasive portion of the procedure that needs to be done we simply press a button and we can simply move the system out of the way."

The machine was developed through a partnership with some of the 6,000 GE Healthcare workers employed in southeast Wisconsin.

"A lot of it is built around the shared goal of helping to improve outcomes," said Will Quinn of GE Healthcare, "reduce procedure time, reduce morbidity, reduce hospital length and stay, and reduce recovery."

TODAY'S TMJ4 was at Aurora St. Luke's when the hospital unveiled its first hybrid OR in 2014. Four years later the hospital now has three.

"Instead of having to transfer the patient from the procedural area to surgery- if a patient needs a hybrid-type of procedure that requires both invasive and minimally-invasive therapy- the physicians can care for the patients right in this space," said Koblosky.

On medical dramas like "Chicago Med" the actors may not be real physicians, but the equipment they use could one day save your life in an emergency.

"It gives people at least somewhat of an idea of what some of the incredible people that work on the team at St. Luke's do each and every day."

GE Healthcare says its technology of the future will bring things like ultrasound, CT and MR right into the operating suite.