Convergence Health & Technology Sustainable Health Program
Creating a smarter, more sustainable operating room
Operating rooms are among the most complex and resource-intensive environments in healthcare. Increasing care demand, workforce shortages, scheduling pressure and growing technological complexity place significant strain on surgical teams and hospital capacity.
Within the Convergence Health & Technology Sustainable Health Program SMART OR2030, clinicians, engineers, data scientists and implementation researchers from Erasmus MC, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam work together to develop the operating room of the future: more efficient, data-driven and sustainable, while keeping staff well-being, patient safety and practical implementation central.
The program focuses not only on technological innovation itself, but also on how innovations can realistically be integrated into daily clinical practice. The goal is to reduce workload, improve surgical planning and efficiency, support healthcare professionals and ultimately improve the quality and sustainability of surgical care.
We want to create the operating room of the future, where AI and technological innovations increase efficiency and staff welfare is key.
Dr. B.M.W. (Bart) Cornelissen
Erasmus MC
Technical Physician
What SMART OR2030 works on
SMART OR2030 focuses on three interconnected areas: advanced surgical planning and visualization, AI-driven operating room scheduling and implementation research.
The program develops technologies that support surgeons and OR teams before, during and after surgery. This includes AI-supported scheduling models, automation of preoperative planning, 3D visualization technologies and data-driven workflow optimization. At the same time, SMART OR2030 investigates one of the major challenges in healthcare innovation: why many promising technologies never fully reach implementation in clinical practice. Research therefore also focuses on organizational readiness, workflow integration, stakeholder involvement and long-term adoption of healthcare technologies.
The program combines technical innovation with implementation science, recognizing that sustainable healthcare innovation requires both advanced technology and successful integration into real clinical environments.
SMART OR2030 addresses major challenges around healthcare accessibility, workforce pressure and operating room efficiency. The program develops AI-supported approaches for surgical planning, scheduling and workflow optimization that may help reduce operating room time, improve precision and support fewer revision procedures. Research and technologies are developed and evaluated within real clinical healthcare environments. The program also addresses the major economic impact of inefficient operating room processes by exploring how hospitals can use operating room capacity more effectively and reduce delays, overtime and workflow inefficiencies. Beyond efficiency, SMART OR2030 focuses strongly on healthcare professionals and sustainable implementation, with attention to workload reduction, staff well-being, patient safety and responsible AI use in healthcare.
Partners & ecosystem
SMART OR2030 brings together expertise from Erasmus MC, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam, combining surgery, clinical technology, AI, data science, implementation science and organizational research. The program also collaborates with industrial and technical partners including Materialise, Surgical Reality, SyncVR and ACMIT. A central ambition is to strengthen sustainable collaboration between healthcare, academia and industry around the future of surgical care and digital operating rooms.
Education & talent development
Students, PhD candidates and interdisciplinary teams actively contribute to SMART OR2030 through clinical research, technical development, implementation studies and collaborative innovation projects. The program creates an interdisciplinary learning environment where clinicians, engineers and implementation researchers work together on real-world surgical and healthcare challenges.
Looking ahead
In the coming years, SMART OR2030 aims to further develop and validate AI-supported scheduling systems, digital surgical planning tools and implementation frameworks within real clinical environments.
The program also aims to strengthen long-term collaborations between hospitals, academic partners and industry to accelerate sustainable innovation in surgical care and operating room management.
