Student develops innovative app in partnership with InCor.

Time management in operating rooms is a complex and strategic task that involves balancing multiple variables, such as the availability of medical teams, equipment, and schedules, while dealing with emergencies and unforeseen events. This organization directly impacts hospital efficiency, patient experience, and financial sustainability.

It was in this context that student Lucas Toribio Sanches, from the Production Engineering course at ESEG College, developed an innovative project entitled "Development of a Machine Learning Computational Tool for Weather Prediction for Patients with Congenital Heart Disease".

Based on Artificial Intelligence, the application called Operating Room Usage Time Calculator aims to calculate the usage time of operating rooms, seeking to optimize room rental time. The project proposes to revolutionize the way operating room usage time is calculated and managed, bringing practical benefits to both hospitals and patients.

The project, which became the student's Graduation Project, was developed under the guidance of João Chang Junior, a Production Engineering professor and coordinating professor of the Development Center at ESEG Faculty, and with mentorship from Dr. Alfredo Manoel da Silva Fernandes, former administrative director of InCor (Heart Institute of the Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP).

Calculator

The app's main function is to calculate operating room usage time. With this, the application aims to provide more accurate data on surgical procedure times, enabling the medical team to better manage the time needed to rent the room and, consequently, allowing for better organization of the patient queue, resulting in improved efficiency in scheduled surgeries.

Developed by Lucas Sanches, the calculator is a web application that monitors operating room usage time using Artificial Intelligence, based on information previously provided by patients when they register on the application.

For Lucas, the biggest challenge of the project was related to programming and integrating Artificial Intelligence. “Programming is an area where I had no experience, but I found myself in it and really enjoyed it. Since my knowledge wasn't very in-depth, I had to catch up and learn programming languages, understand how they work, and put them into practice,” he points out.

Regarding the calculator's usability, the student explains that he wanted to make the platform as user-friendly and intuitive as possible, allowing everyone to use it without difficulty. "The interface is very intuitive and simple. It has an initial screen with all the information that needs to be filled in about the patient so that the Artificial Intelligence can calculate the time needed to use the operating room," Lucas details about the calculation process.

Scientific development

The project proposal arose from conversations between student Lucas Sanches and Professor João Chang Junior, who had previously worked with InCor alongside the then administrative director, Dr. Alfredo Manoel da Silva Fernandes.

Among the activities of the ESEG Faculty Development Center, the professor helped achieve several important milestones, such as the international publication "Predictors of in-ICU length of stay among congenital heart defect patients using artificial intelligence model: A pilot study". The pilot study explores the use of AI to predict the length of stay in the ICU for patients with congenital heart defects, indicating the potential of this technology as an aid in hospital management and clinical decision-making.

According to Professor Chang, the publication opened many doors for the students. "This project enabled seven students from the ESEG Faculty to enroll in scientific initiation programs, through the ESEG Development Center, at the USP Faculty of Medicine, expanding their academic training and practical application in the field of artificial intelligence applied to healthcare," he emphasizes.

The relationship between ESEG Faculty and the Heart Institute (InCor) is long-standing. Through Production Engineering initiatives led by Professor Chang and Dr. Alfredo, numerous research projects have already been carried out with InCor. “Doctors Fabio Biscegli Jatene, Roberto Kalil Filho, and Fábio Kawamura, directors of the hospital, welcomed me as an associate researcher at InCor. Together with them, we have the opportunity to propose research that contributes to the technological advancement of medicine. It is a collaborative effort involving many people, such as Dr. Marcelo Biscegli Jatene, director of the pediatric cardiac surgery department, and his team (Luiz Caneo, Ainda Turquetto, Luciana Amato, Carla Tanamati, and Leonardo Miana), as well as Dr. Elisandra Arita, advisor to the director, who provides us with all the necessary support,” adds the professor.

Looking back at the beginning, Lucas explains that the initial idea for the project came from Professor Chang, who gave him the opportunity to challenge himself to develop the software. “In a conversation with Professor Chang, he said that InCor needed something like this [a calculator] and, if I was interested, we could work together on this project. The part about the hospital came from him [the need], but the Artificial Intelligence part was something that arose from my ideas,” the student recalls about the project's start.

Implementation at InCor

The application developed by Lucas Sanches, a Production Engineering student at ESEG, will be implemented in InCor's systems, aiming to solve problems and automate operating room time.

According to the former director of the Heart Institute, Dr. Alfredo Manoel da Silva Fernandes, the expected impact of implementing this tool is significant, as it aims to optimize the use of operating rooms. "There are waiting lists for elective surgeries, and it's impossible not to seek to optimize these available resources, in addition to the fixed costs of these hospital facilities being extremely high," explains the specialist.

Regarding the importance of partnerships and opportunities between educational institutions and hospitals, Dr. Alfredo praises these collaborations for the benefit of society. “It is a challenge to bring academia closer to service providers in the search for feasible solutions for the benefit of society. My expectation is that these partnerships will contribute to the development of a product, in this case, software, whose methodology is reproducible for other outcomes of interest to hospital and healthcare managers,” he emphasizes.

Project completion

As part of completing his degree in Production Engineering here at ESEG College, student Lucas presented his Graduation Project (TG) on December 13th, with a panel composed of Prof. João Chang Junior; the former director of InCor, Dr. Alfredo Manoel da Silva Fernandes; and ESEG professors Edgard Rodrigues and Thales Roberto Fontes Sakamoto.

The student appeared calm and confident, with a compelling oratory style, presenting objective yet content-rich slides. The presentation highlighted the project's main points, such as development, studies, and testing. Lucas demonstrated the AI implementation process for Machine Learning (transforming data into numbers) and how the application will work in practice, yielding more accurate results and solving the problems of operating room rentals.

The panel, quite impressed with the presentation, gave the student's project its full approval and congratulated him on the application and the solutions it brings to society.

With his degree completed and presentation delivered, Lucas will now begin implementing his program at InCor. Soon, tests will be conducted with the Heart Institute's systems to make necessary adjustments and improve the application, so that it can be seen in practice.

Once again, ESEG College demonstrates the high-level education it provides to students, making a difference in their training.