Is There Such Thing As Chicago Med's OR 2.0?

The doctors, nurses, and first responders make up most of the life-saving skills at the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center in the popular One Chicago television show "Chicago Med." "Chicago Med" doctors often come from different backgrounds and disciplines. Still, one common thread among all of these medical practitioners is that they are often willing to go well above the call of duty to aid and heal those in their care.

In an interview discussing "Chicago Med" over on YouTube, Kristen Hager, who plays Dr. Stevie Hammer, spoke about how important getting the medical accuracies in "Chicago Med" right is. Hager explained, "Medical training was integral. I came out to Chicago a full week early to just do full days with two of our fantastic active trauma surgeons who work down the street from the studio. It was like a boot camp of how to get your Ph.D. over the span of a week, and it was incredible." Besides the actors giving it their all in their portrayal of doctors, skill can only take some so far, and sometimes the equipment can make or break a critical moment. At one point in "Chicago Med," the Gaffney Medical Center is gifted a brand new operating room, but how realistic is this technological medical marvel?

In Season 8 of "Chicago Med," the life of a wealthy investor and business operator named Jack Dayton (Sasha Roiz) is saved by the quick actions and resourcefulness of the doctors of the Gaffney Medical Center. For the doctors' efforts, Dayton invests heavily in the hospital, going so far as to gain a controlling stake and becoming the defacto owner. Though this definitely upsets many of the dynamics in the show, one of Dayton's first actions is to install a brand new operating room, which is referred to as "OR 2.0." This brand-new operating room is filled with state-of-the-art technologies, robotics, AI assisting programs, and many other medical advancements. However, it still turns out that a doctor's skill can supersede all of these fancy bells and whistles regarding critical thinking and decisions.

So, how real is something like OR 2.0? Over on Reddit, several "Chicago Med" fans gathered to discuss the reality, with u/amandahugkisss asking, "I'm not in the medical field, so that I could be incorrect, but OR 2.0 seems so fictional/fake/unreal. I know this is a fictional TV show, but OR 2.0 seems to me to be like adding an alien from a UFO to the cast. Does anyone in the medical field know if OR 2.0 is far off from reality or a possibility??" This question caused u/smallsloth1320 to reply that they think that it isn't very possible now, but it will be in the future; adding that OR 2.0 kind of takes them out of the series because it seems so implausible. Surprisingly, it looks as if a real-life OR 2.0 isn't as far off as some might assume.

Continuing the above conversation, u/Irving_Forbush noted that they had become curious after seeing the brand new OR 2.0 in "Chicago Med" and that they went in search of how truthful this medical innovation truly is. They found that the level of sophistication found in OR 2.0 isn't quite there yet. Still, many technologies, like advanced 3D imaging and robotic surgery, are very much real, adding that the gap between fiction and reality shrinks every day. However, some hospital operating rooms defy expectations, and ones with enough technology that the OR 2.0 featured in "Chicago Med" isn't that much of a stretch.

This is probably best represented by a website for Siemens, which shows off an array of different technologies that are getting close to the OR 2.0 from "Chicago Med." This includes using infrared light instead of x-rays, minimally invasive surgeries, and adaptive positioning for equipment and patients, significantly reducing the error margin. Although this new style of operating room combines some terrific medical advancements in gear, it is still a little bit off from the fictionalized advanced operating room in "Chicago Med," but that isn't to say that it won't be possible shortly.