Today's operating room is blending information technology and clinical technology for safer, more efficient procedures. "The gap between information technology and clinical technology has been getting smaller," says Tim Stettheimer, vice president/chief information officer, St. Vincent's Hospital, and in fact they overlap. For instance, he says, x-rays and MRIs are historically a clinical technology — but now they're being captured digitally and used in electronic medical records and for image-guided surgery, bringing them into the realm of information technology. Nowhere is that more true than in the operating room. The University of Alabama-Birmingham last month opened its new endo suite, which has x-ray capabilities right in the operating room for use in endovascular procedures. That's only part of the updated technology in UAB's ORs, says Barbara Doster, information manager and acting interim director for the ORs. One of the most exciting is a video conferencing setup. Cameras in each operating room help the charge nurse efficiently coordinate the flow of patients into the ORs. The camera system also has been used to broadcast procedures into the classroom and in special Internet broadcasts. "Another way we use it is the physician in the OR can call to the path lab and ask the pathologist to take a look at something before taking a sample," Doster says. "It's a real-time consult without someone having to leave their desk." Surgeons can even consult with another doctor in another OR over the system, she says. Montclair Baptist Medical Center is using a couple of new high-tech technologies in its operating rooms. One is a new device that monitors the spinal motor tract during surgeries in which the spinal cord is at risk. "Most people monitor what we call sensory potentials," explains Kyle Hudgens, MD, a neurologist at Montclair. "That monitors the back of the spinal cord, what we call the posterior columns of the spinal cord, and that's good technique, but we now [can monitor] motor responses, which is monitoring the larger, anterior portion of the spinal cord. So if the spinal cord goes under traction or the blood supply is compromised, you would have a quicker, truer report by monitoring the motor responses." Montclair is also using a Treon Plus StealthStation system, which uses sophisticated 3D imaging technology to guide surgeons through complicated procedures, including neurological and spinal procedures. Another advancement on the horizon is the Gemini device, developed by Birmingham-based Applied Surgical Solutions in cooperation with UAB and awaiting FDA approval. The Gemini acts as a hub to connect various electrosurgical devices, controlling them with a single wireless foot pedal. Surgeons testing the product on animals have also liked the smoke evacuation feature, which pulls out the smoke and debris caused by the CO2 used to expand the surgical cavity in these procedures.