Improving safety in surgery through structured education and standardization
Alfred Surgery is an innovative cloud-based platform specifically designed to enhance the safety of surgical procedures. We provide advanced tools for standardization, collaboration, digital checklists with decision-support, and data analysis to enhance quality of care.
The solution offers structured training to surgeons and nurses, providing them with in-depth knowledge and skills to reach excellence within their field. Through our unique certification program, clinicians can be entrusted to perform high risk procedures. With Alfred Surgery, patients can be sure that they receive the intended care.
Our ultimate goal is to lead the transition towards a safety culture within surgery. Alfred Surgery is developed together with world leading experts and in collaboration with the aviation industry.
A module-based platform
This is how Alfred Surgery works.
Editor
In the editorial section educational content and best-practice standards are created by editor groups. The platform enables groups of experts to collaborate, create content and receive feedback from users. All content is presented in Alfred Surgery´s smart user interface. The process of content creation takes place seamlessly across borders and time zones.
Education
In the educational section, users have access to structured educational protocols. These protocols provide step-by-step guidance on surgical procedures, covering all phases of a treatment pathway. Clinicians are trained in how to execute standard procedures, to prevent common errors and to avoid adverse events. They are also trained to effectively handle challenging situations of real-world surgery. To ensure competency, clinicians can be certified through multiple forms of assessment.
Surgery
To make surgery safer, it is crucial that best-practice knowledge reaches the patients. We have designed the platform to be utilized within the clinic, enabling clinicians to ensure the quality of each step in a patient's pathway. The platform offers procedure-specific checklists and clinical decision support tools. Additionally, clinical data is collected and made available for research purposes and performance analysis.
Adverse events
In a safety culture, professionals learn from each other's mistakes. In the aviation industry, it has been a standard practice for over 40 years to utilize adverse events as a primary method for skill training. Alfred Surgery follows this approach by offering scenario-based training that is derived from real-life surgical adverse events and "near misses".
These scenarios are thoroughly analyzed by the editor groups. The valuable learning points are extracted and incorporated into the educational protocols, ensuring continuous improvement of our protocols. Thereby, Alfred Surgery plays a key role in promoting knowledge exchange and a learning culture across hospitals and regions.
A layered architecture
Implementation of best practice standards.
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Data analysis of performance
Alfred gathers structured data through the educational and clinical process. This competency and clinical data are made accessible for performance analysis and research purposes, ensuring continuous improvement.
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Standardized patient pathways
The standards are converted into clinical protocols for standardization, which include procedure-specific checklists supported by decision-support tools. The system incorporates safety barriers in each step of the patient pathway. Alfred will assist clinicians to “do it right the first time, everytime”.
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Structured education
The standards are presented within the learning area of the platform as step-by-step educational protocols. These protocols provide comprehensive training for the surgical staff, covering every aspect of a treatment pathway. Multiple protocols can be clustered within curriculums to suit the hospitals educational program.
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Local adaptations
To assure seamless incorporation of these standards into different health care systems, the standards are customizable to local preferences and logistics. However, customization does not compromise the "golden standard" principles.
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Expert curated educational and surgical standards
The Alfred Surgery system is constructed upon expert-curated educational and procedural standards. These standards serve as the blueprint for best-practice clinical care and form the foundation for the implementation of the Alfred system.
A new way of learning
Innovative user interface
Task overview
Clinicians are provided with step-by-step checklists with decision-support for each part of a treatment pathway. These structured checklists will improve clinical decision-making and enables collection of critical clinical data. It will also enhance team coordination and common situational awareness.
Surrounding the task overview six educational satellites are presented. The satellites ensure proper execution of the tasks and handling of variations within surgery.
Normal execution
Surgical teams are trained to perform the different steps of a procedure under normal circumstances. In surgery, several ways of executing a task may be correct and Alfred provides overview of these in a standardized way.
Equipment
The users are trained in what equipment is used and how it is used during the different steps of a procedure.
Challenging situations
The surgical team is trained to manage challenging situations. In real-life surgery, many patient cases deviate from normal standards. Therefore, clinicians need to acquire the necessary skills and expertise to successfully manage these complex scenarios.
Common errors
During the early stages of their learning curves, clinicians frequently make similar errors. By providing scenario-training on common errors, we aim to avoid these and advance the learning curves.
Adverse events
During complex surgical care pathways, adverse events may occur. In some cases, these events can be life-threatening or cause permanent disability. The patient-related and socio-economic consequences of these events are extremely high and must be avoided.
Alfred Surgery prevents the occurrence of adverse events by providing procedural task lists and tools that increase common situational awareness within the surgical team. These task lists are modifiable so that knowledge obtained from new events can be incorporated and shared with all Alfred users. The platform also exhibits a emergency warning system to prevent recurrence.
Evidence
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Learning from the aviation industry
A safety culture.
Learning from the aviation industry
A safety culture.
“When aviation transitioned into safety, the best were asked to set the standards. The rest had to follow.”
Alfred Surgery has a strong focus on collaboration to build a community with surgeons exchanging knowledge and sharing insights. Global key opinion leaders are united within editor groups to define surgical standards. We actively promote a strong learning culture by encouraging the sharing surgical challenges across hospital and country borders. Through this collaborative approach and by placing the best in front, we strive to continuously enhance surgical expertise and safety worldwide.
Meet the team
Our pioneering experts.
Core team
Dr. Knut Borch
Dr. Robbert Jan Lindeman
Tore Andreassen
Dr. David Lourié
Kristian Bjørnstad
Collaborating experts
Dr. David Chen
Dr. Med. Jan Kukleta
Dr. Victor Radu
Dr. Ed Felix
Dr. Andrew de Beaux
Dr. Jorge Daes
Dr. Filip Muysoms
Dr. Chris Oppong
Dr. René Fortelny
Dr. Simon P. Brown
Dr. Conrad Bellencer
“True confidence comes not from foolish arrogance, but from humble and deliberate training. This is what Alfred stands for.”
“The Alfred platform will undoubtedly prove an indispensable, dynamic resource for countless surgeons. Far surpassing those currently available in traditional training programs.”
“Alfred’s efforts for improvement of surgical practice and education are deeply appreciated and you have the full support of the Norwegian Surgical Association.”
“This is how surgery should be taught. Alfred will become the bible of surgery.”
