Vetro: Operating Room Spatial Intelligence

Vetro is VitVio’s 3D-native operating room intelligence platform, using ambient sensing and 3D spatial intelligence to understand the surgical workflow in real time—from patient arrival and induction through surgery, documentation, and turnover.

Instead of asking clinicians to stop and report what happened, Vetro creates a live operational picture of the operating room. It turns that context into automated stage tracking, team coordination, instrument-use visibility, draft operative notes, and new workflow automations as needs evolve. Designed to work quietly alongside the clinical team, Vetro acts like an extra pair of hands for the operating room—handling operational and administrative work so staff can stay focused on the patient.

What operating room problem does Vetro solve?

Operating room teams still spend significant time recording milestones, checking case status, coordinating by phone or message, and reconstructing documentation after surgery. These tasks are essential, but they pull highly trained staff away from the patient and leave operational information fragmented across people and systems.

When reliable, real-time context is missing, small delays can compound across the surgical schedule. Operating room time is estimated at $50–100 per minute, and inefficiencies in scheduling, turnover, and resource use add an estimated $1,800 in unplanned cost per surgery. This often leads to late starts, longer days, staff burden, and operating room capacity that is harder to use effectively. Vetro addresses this administrative gap by creating a continuous operational picture of the room as work happens.

How Vetro works: from sensing to operating room intelligence

Vetro is powered by VitVio’s 3D Spatial Context Engine—the intelligence layer that brings together sensor inputs, reconstructs the operating room in three dimensions, and maintains a live understanding of what is happening across the perioperative workflow.

• Sense. Vetro is designed to be sensor-agnostic: it can aggregate inputs from cameras, microphones, RFID, LiDAR, radar, Wi-Fi, and other relevant hospital or third-party sensors. Rather than relying on one feed or one device, it brings those signals together to build a spatial reconstruction of the operating room—its geometry, equipment, activity, and the relationships between them.
• Understand. Vetro’s 3D Spatial Context Engine turns that spatial reconstruction into operational context. It interprets what is happening within the room: where people, instruments, and equipment are; how they relate to one another; and how the procedure is progressing. This creates a continuously updated model of the operating room, rather than a collection of isolated sensor readings.
• Act. That operational context can support stage tracking, team coordination, instrument-use visibility, draft operative notes, workflow updates, and new automations developed around each hospital’s needs. The system is designed to make operational information available when it is useful, without creating another manual reporting task for staff.

How is Vetro deployed and integrated?

Vetro is designed to fit into existing operating rooms and hospital workflows without adding unnecessary disruption. From the first site survey through installation, on-premises processing, and system integration, each deployment is tailored to the environment in which it will operate.

• Site survey in minutes. A short LiDAR scan maps the geometry of the operating room and helps plan sensor coverage before installation. This gives each deployment a spatial baseline tailored to the room, its equipment, and its workflows.
• Installed overnight. Vetro is designed to be installed and calibrated with minimal disruption to the operating schedule. A typical room installation takes a few hours, allowing hospitals to prepare a room outside normal clinical hours.
• Data stays in the hospital. Vetro servers are installed on site, so operational data is processed within the hospital environment. The deployment is configured around the hospital’s governance, access, and data-handling requirements.
• Designed around your environment. Vetro is designed to read from and write back to the systems hospitals already use, including electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), and patient administration systems (PAS). It is designed for HL7 and FHIR-compatible integrations, including—but not limited to—environments using Epic, Cerner / Oracle Health, and other clinical systems of record and integration engines used by hospitals.

Where a hospital agrees, Vetro can also integrate with relevant third-party clinical technology platforms, including surgical robotics, intraoperative systems, and analytics systems. This allows operational context to move between the systems involved in perioperative care rather than creating another standalone workflow.

What changes for surgical teams?

Vetro gives each team a shared, real-time understanding of the operating room and the wider perioperative workflow. The result is less time spent chasing updates, recording routine information, and coordinating around uncertainty—and more time for the work that needs clinical attention.

• Surgeons can arrive with clearer, more current information about room readiness and case progression, spend less time waiting for updates or reconstructing what happened, and review draft operative notes informed by captured procedural context.
• Circulating Nurses can spend less time manually recording routine milestones, field fewer status-check requests, and coordinate from a clearer view of what the room needs next—while keeping their attention on the patient and the team.
• Operating Room Managers gain a more consistent live view of case status, readiness, delays, turnover, and workflow patterns. It also surfaces clear recommendations on opportunities to improve throughput, reduce avoidable waste, and intervene before local issues compound across the day’s schedule.
• Sterile Processing Teams can gain clearer information about which instruments are present and used, helping them understand utilization patterns and prepare around the workflows they support.

Every workflow we build is designed to deliver measurable financial ROI for hospitals while making the day easier for the people delivering care, so they can stay focused on patients.

Evidence

Operating room inefficiency has a direct cost: lost capacity, avoidable spend, and more administrative work for clinical teams.

• Every minute of OR time matters. Operating-room time costs an estimated $50–100 per minute. Recovering enough capacity for one additional hour-long case per day can add roughly $300,000 in annual profitability to a single operating suite.
• Fragmented coordination is expensive. Poor planning and communication can add an estimated $1,800 in unplanned cost per surgery.
• Operational burden pulls attention from care. Manual status updates, milestone logging, and after-the-fact documentation take time away from the clinical work only people can do.
• Evidence from the field. Vetro is already being implemented with hospital partners across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Depending on hospital and procedure mix, Vetro can increase profitability by up to 23%. VitVio has publicly announced a clinical collaboration with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with more announcements on the way.

Sources: Cost of care in the operating room; UW Medicine operating-room research; Operating room design and economics; Dreyfus, Nair & Rosales (2019); VitVio launch announcement.

Privacy, security, and clinician control

Vetro is designed to give hospitals operational intelligence without turning the operating room into a surveillance environment. The principles below explain how Vetro approaches privacy, security, and clinician control.

• Data is anonymized at the point of capture. When operational data leaves the operating room, identifiable visual information is removed.
• Processing happens inside the hospital. Vetro uses on-premises infrastructure configured around the hospital’s governance, access, and data-handling requirements.
• Vetro tracks the process, not people. It is designed to understand surgical workflow and operational events—not to evaluate individual staff performance or monitor people outside clinical workflows.
• Operational context, not clinical decision-making. Vetro does not replace established clinical safety processes. It is designed to augment them with timely operational context that can support coordination, documentation, and workflow improvement.

Frequently asked questions

Is Vetro recording staff or evaluating individual performance?

No. Vetro is designed to understand surgical workflow and operational events—not to score individual staff performance or monitor people outside clinical workflows.

Does Vetro make clinical decisions?

No. Vetro provides operational context; it does not replace established clinical safety processes and is designed to augment them with timely information for coordination, documentation, and workflow improvement.

How long does deployment take?

A site assessment and implementation plan are tailored to each operating room. Installation and calibration are designed to happen outside clinical hours, with a typical room installation taking a few hours.

Does video leave the hospital?

Raw video and identifiable data are processed on-premises. When operational data leaves the operating room, identifiable visual information is removed.

Which systems does Vetro integrate with?

Vetro is designed to read from and write back to EHRs, EMRs, and patient administration systems, using HL7- and FHIR-compatible integrations—including, but not limited to, environments using Epic and Cerner / Oracle Health.

What happens when the system is uncertain?

Vetro can flag uncertain events for review rather than presenting them as confirmed operational information, preserving a clear audit trail.

Can Vetro go live before a full EHR integration is complete?

Yes. Vetro can be introduced while EHR integration progresses, using an agreed interim workflow for schedule and event information. This allows teams to begin using operational intelligence while the full read-and-write integration is completed.

What hardware does Vetro require in an operating room?

Vetro is deployed with a planned network of ceiling-mounted cameras, optional microphones where appropriate, and on-premises compute. A site survey and spatial scan determine the right coverage and placement for each room. Additional sensors may be brought into the fold for agreed beta features; these are assessed and agreed with each hospital on a case-by-case basis.

Does Vetro require staff to manually log every event?

No. Vetro is designed to reduce manual milestone logging and routine status updates. Early deployment can include staff input to train and validate workflows; automation expands as the system learns the room and the team’s operating patterns.

How is Vetro different from a conventional operating room camera system?

A conventional camera records footage. Vetro uses 3D spatial intelligence to understand the operational context of the room—where activity is happening, how the procedure is progressing, and what the team may need next—so that information can support coordination, documentation, and workflow automation.

How long does it take for Vetro to become fully automated?

Vetro is introduced in stages: training, augmentation, and then automation. The pace depends on the workflow, room configuration, and hospital priorities, but the transition to fully automated workflows typically takes one to three months.