The computer assisted surgery and navigation system PiGalileo is a development of PI Systems and is based on a PC-system. The system is currently a stand alone version. During a surgery the system stores all system based decisions from the surgeon as well as corresponding computer calculations in various log files. These files are needed so that the developers at PI systems can correct any software errors. Until now these files were copied by hospital staff onto diskettes and transmitted to PI Systems via electronic mail. As a consequence of this process the developers often received erroneous data files.

The new process foresees that employees of PI Systems can retrieve log files from a local client and upload updates of their software or the operating system by remote access and are able to connect themselves directly to the surgery system via telephone line. This solution should avoid failures which occurred during the conventional manual data transfer process described above. Additionally, the system can be maintained much more effectively and quicker which speeds up the availability of the surgery system after maintenance.

Within the framework of this paper, five commonly used software packages for remote access were evaluated and tested to offer PI Systems improved support capabilities. These different solutions were tested, evaluated and differentiated from one another using suitable evaluation criteria.

Finally, we can state that RealVNC and/or UltraVNC are the best suited tools for the identified purpose. The software is available for free, usable for everybody and fulfils the requirements of PI Systems: data transfer and remote desktop observation. In case the security needs may rise, the communication channel can be encrypted via an OpenSSH tunnel.

Summarizing, the simplified support process combined with the high quality of the overall system clearly enhances its competitive position.