US 2,019,200,844 · Filed 2018-12-04

How Ethicon's Surgical Hub Connects Operating Rooms to the Cloud

Imagine a surgical operating room where all the instruments talk to a central hub, which then beams surgical data up to the cloud for real-time monitoring and storage. This patent covers the method that makes that whole communication pipeline work—detecting devices, connecting them, and automatically logging what's happening during surgery.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The patent protects a workflow method for surgical environments: detecting when modular surgical devices enter an operating room, automatically connecting those devices to a central surgical hub, linking that hub to cloud infrastructure, and then streaming surgical procedure data from the devices through the hub and up to cloud storage. What's protected here is specifically the process of coordinating this multi-layer handshake between physical operating room equipment, an intermediary hub, and remote cloud systems.

Why it matters

In modern hospitals, real-time data visibility during surgery is critical for safety, training, and operational efficiency. This patent gives Ethicon (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) exclusive rights to a system that automates the detection and integration of surgical devices into a connected ecosystem. That means competitors can't easily replicate the exact workflow of auto-detecting devices and streaming data without infringing. For a surgical technology company, controlling this kind of operating room connectivity creates both a moat around their product ecosystem and a foundation for future AI-assisted or remote-monitoring features.

Real-world use

When a surgeon uses Ethicon's connected instruments during an operation, those devices automatically register with the surgical hub, and key metrics like tissue cutting patterns or energy delivery are continuously uploaded to a secure cloud database that the hospital and device manufacturer can access.

Original USPTO abstract

Disclosed is a method including detecting a modular surgical device within bounds of a surgical operating room; connecting the modular surgical device to a surgical hub; connecting the surgical hub to a cloud-based system; transmitting surgical data associated with a surgical procedure being performed in the surgical operating room from the modular surgical device to the surgical hub; and transmitting the surgical data from the surgical hub to the cloud-based system.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,019,200,844
Filing date: 2018-12-04
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Ethicon Llc
Inventor(s): SHELTON, IV, FREDERICK E., YATES, DAVID C., WIENER, EITAN T., ALDRIDGE, JEFFREY L., MESSERLY, JEFFREY D., HARRIS, JASON L., WIDENHOUSE, TAMARA
CPC class: A61B1/00009

View original record on Google Patents →

Want to file your own patent?

If you're designing smart medical devices, use our free scanner to check whether your connectivity architecture might overlap with existing surgical tech patents.

Free patentability scan