Made-in-Canada AI prototype like ‘Google Maps’ for surgeons: doctor

A new prototype that uses artificial intelligence to guide doctors in the operating room could help democratize surgical care around the world, a surgeon behind the new software tells CTV News.

Dr. Amin Madani, a staff surgeon in the Sprott Department of Surgery at the University Health Network in Toronto, is part of a team that has developed a form of AI that could help guide surgeons in the operating room to avoid complications or errors.

“It’s a system that’s designed in a way to provide assistance to surgeons, sort of like a second pair of eyes,” Madani told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.

“If you will, sort of like your Google Maps while you’re driving, but for surgery.”

Working with a team of people from around the world, among them computer scientists, Madani said the prototype was initially developed for one of the most commonly performed procedures: gall bladder surgery.

Typically, a camera would be inserted in an area of the body, such as the abdomen, through a keyhole incision, with the images then broadcast on a monitor.

Using hours of archived video from previous surgeries, the AI algorithm then analyzes the pixels on the screen in real time and differentiates between areas that are safe to cut and those a surgeon should avoid.

Madani said, by highlighting areas that could result in errors if cut, the prototype will help “augment” the performance of a surgeon.

The accuracy of the AI was previously published in the journal Annals of Surgery in November 2020.

Still a prototype, the AI hasn’t yet been used to assist a surgeon in the operating room, but it has been tested to ensure it could work during a live surgery.

Once properly authorized, the next steps would be to use it in an OR to show that it could improve a surgeon’s performance, provide educational value and decrease the risk of complications, with the ultimate goal of providing value for patients.

“Right now, we’re still in a research phase,” Madani told CTV News Channel on Dec. 30. “Actually implementing this on a high scale, we still have some ways to go.”

But the vision behind the software, Madani said, is to demonstrate the potential power of AI.

With those most disproportionately affected by surgical complications being people in rural settings and developing countries, Madani said this particular use of AI is a way of “democratizing” surgical care.

“We’ve developed now a tool that is able to capture the minds and the thought processes of not just one expert surgeon, but a panel of expert surgeons, so we can actually disseminate that into every operating room around the world,” he told CTV’s Your Morning.