A New Era for Medicine in Gdańsk
Six professors at the Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny are currently in the top 2 % of all medical researchers worldwide. They conduct valuable research in the new clinic buildings. Now they also have a new center for non-invasive medicine. It serves cutting-edge research as well as the treatment of tens of thousands of patients. An R&M network supports physicians in their work.
Project was carried out by Arch-Deco Sp z o.o., Gdynia
One of the largest clinic construction projects in Europe has now been completed. The Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny (GUM) and its university clinic are at the beginning of a new era. This applies to its internationally respected research as well as to healthcare in the north of Poland and the training of young medical professionals.
For years, the state and the GUM had invested in the modernization and construction of new clinic buildings. The most recent project was the Centrum Medycyny Nieinwazyjnej (CMN), which was completed at the end of 2020.
Complex construction project
Due to the challenging site conditions, the new CMN could only be realized in stages. Operations in the immediately adjacent clinic buildings were not to be interrupted. Over the years, everyone involved, from the Arch-Deco architectural studio, the university leadership, and project managers to the installation partners coordinated numerous details.
Phase 1 lasted from 2015 to 2018, phase 2 from 2018 to 2020. First, clinical departments had to move within the campus to free up space for the new building. This was then followed by the demolition of three old buildings. In their place, the construction companies erected the six-story CMN – starting with the bunker for radiation therapy and ending with the bridges to the equally new Centrum Medycyny Inwazyjnej (CMI).
Multifunctional LAN
Uninterrupted data traffic plays a significant role in this medical environment. Enormous amounts of data are generated during diagnoses, treatments, and in laboratories. This includes high-resolution tomography images, radiological images, and other data from analysis and visualization procedures. The radiology archive of a university hospital can be several hundred terabytes in size. This information must be available at all times for consultations, research, intensive and emergency care.
Increasingly, physicians are exchanging information with each other and with the research industry – locally and internationally via cloud and telecooperation. To do so, they require networks that can transfer several Gigabit/s loss-free. The 6,000 medical students at the GUM expect powerful equipment for digitized training: PC workstations, fast WLAN, broadband connections.
Sensitive medical devices and high-frequency signal transmission require continuous shielding. Discharge at plug connections must be avoided, especially in the vicinity of patients and monitoring devices.
The university clinic manages the data of hundreds of thousands of patients. Active and passive data protection has to be guaranteed for these patients from the LAN outlet to the data center. Furthermore, clinics have to be prepared for comprehensive digitalization. The buzzword for the future is «smart hospital».
In the upshot: The data network of a clinic has to be able to master an incredible number of different applications and complex functions. At the same time, it has to be many times more powerful and robust than a conventional LAN.
Opting for R&M
This is why the planners of the CMN named three main criteria for the evaluation of network cabling: quality, reliability, and functionality. They opted for the universally usable cabling system from R&M.
This means that all current technical and functional options are available at the passive network infrastructure level, something confirmed by Michal Dudo, Technical Administration IT at the university clinic. The R&M solution makes it possible to continuously operate Class EA channels for the use of 2.5 Gbit/s, 5 Gbit/s, and 10 Gbit/s. This means the cabling will also support future generations of IT and medical technology.
Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny
Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny (GUM) is the largest medical academic institution in Northern Poland. Its four faculties continuously train 6,000 medical students. The proportion of international students is 17 %.
The GUM was founded in 1945 but the tradition of medical education and research in Gdańsk dates back to the foundation of the Gdańskie Gimnazjum Akademickie in 1558. The GUM was designated a research university in 2019 – the only university in the country with this status.
There are currently 1,051 scientists at the university. Its areas of expertise include heart, lung, and bone marrow transplants, advanced oncology, and first phase clinical research. Six professors and fellows at the GUM are in the top 2 % in the ranking of the world’s most influential medical researchers. This ranking is organized by Stanford University in California in cooperation with the companies Elsevier and SciTech Strategies.
The GUM includes the university clinic with the newly established Centrum Medycyny Nieinwazyjnej (CMN), and Centrum Medycyny Inwazyjnej (CMI). The two centers together form one of the largest and currently most modern medical complexes in Poland. Both at home and in Europe, the Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne is counted as being in the premier league due to its current research possibilities.
It cares for around 60,000 inpatients and 250,000 outpatients a year. The clinic is responsible for a catchment area of 3.5 million people. Doctors there perform around 21,000 surgical procedures annually. Two million samples are tested in the laboratory each year.
www.uck.gda.pl
The project was carried out by Arch-Deco Sp z o.o., Gdynia
Figures and data on the new Centrum Medycyny Nieinwazyjnej
- Investment volume: 600 million PLN (135 million EUR, 145 million CHF)
- 75,000 square meters of usable space on six floors
- More than 2,000 rooms, 688 hospital beds
- 20 clinical departments from allergology to radiation therapy in the underground bunker, plus a central laboratory
- Spacious wards with bathrooms, restaurants, and service points
Network isolator
A network isolator ensures galvanic separation in Ethernet-based networks. It interrupts electrically conductive connections between the periphery and the devices. This is a precautionary measure to protect patients and sensitive medical technology. The reason is that current must not flow over a patient’s body in case touchable conductive parts of the device come into contact with the patient. A network isolator prevents currents from building up while at the same time enabling virtually lossless.
Make way for 10 Gigabit/s
The data network of the Centrum Medycyny Nieinwazyjnej (CMN) at the Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny (GUM) is based on
the standard star topology model. The infrastructure consists of fiber optic cabling for the backbone and risers in both construction phases and double-shielded copper cabling for the floors.
Fiber optics:
- Backbone: OS2/OM4 cables, 96 fibers
- Risers: OS2/OM4 cables, 48 and 24 fibers
- Patch panels: Unirack2 OS2/OM4 (190 pcs.)
Copper:
- Horizontal cabling on the floors
- Installation cables: Cat. 7 S/FTP for 1,000 MHz (1,300 km)
- Patch panels: 1U with 24 or 48 Cat. 6A ISO/s modules (560 pcs.)
- Outlets: Cat. 6A ISO modules, FM45 Cat. 6A connectors, protection class IP54 (20,730 pcs.)
The 104 racks with 750 patch panels can be retrofitted with the infrastructure management system R&MinteliPhy.
SafeLine network isolators from R&M ensure galvanic separation of electrical equipment close to the patient beds following IEC 60601-1.
The three-level R&M security system with mechanical protection of the connections prevents manipulations and patch errors.
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