The first real-time, artificial intelligence-based (AI) system has been developed for use in the operating room by healthtech company, Digital Surgery.
Surgery window
The company’s AI platform is designed to aid surgeons in the OR by reducing risk and making surgery safer. By utilising huge amounts of data, Digital Surgery can provide road maps for surgeons, helping them navigate the operating room and counter the numerous variables surgical teams face.
The platform’s AI recognises what is happening during surgery through a camera, cross-checking and correlating anatomy and actions against the largest library of surgical roadmaps. Whilst this is happening, surgical teams can see in real-time what the platform is analysing, helping them to predict their next steps if needed.
“This is a huge milestone for the future of surgery because it lays the foundation for how AI and computer vision will support surgical teams to deliver safer surgeries. It also enables the next generation of robotic surgery, giving these future systems the capability to function more intelligently and safely,” said Dr. Jean Nehme, co-founder and CEO of Digital Surgery. “We have already developed AI algorithms for multiple procedures across bariatrics and other surgical specialties like orthopaedics, and our library will continue to grow. With AI, we have the unique ability to scale global surgical best practices.”
A lack of surgical knowledge is one of the biggest factors hindering access to safe surgical care across the world. Digital Surgery believes that emerging technologies like AI, robotics and telemedicine platforms can help scale-up healthcare services globally.
Commenting the Digital Surgery platform, Dr Sanjay Purkayastha, surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College London, said: “What Digital Surgery has done with this technology feels like a comparison with the advent of laparoscopy which was a truly disruptive and ground-breaking revolution and paradigm shift in surgery. This resulted in a huge change in approach from maximally invasive to minimally invasive surgery. In the next five years, I expect there to be a transformation from non-AI to AI supported surgery as common practice, benefiting training, patient safety, data collection and outcomes analysis. This is something my OR teams, clinical teams and I would look forward to and will truly impact patient care.”
