Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seamlessly inserted itself into our everyday lives. From virtual assistants managing our calendars and schedules to personalized recommendations guiding (often unknown to us) our online experiences, almost all aspects of our daily routines are now influenced by AI methods. Beyond mundane tasks, AI’s influence is steadily permeating the realm of healthcare with integration now widespread in many fields such as radiology (e.g. pulmonary embolism detection) and pharmacology (e.g. drug discovery).
Surgery too should embrace the integration of AI, heralding a new era of technological advancement within the field and in a manner beyond mere roboticization of movement but by means of true, digitally augmented, operator decision support. Such systems available now include computer-generated pre-planning models and intra-operative navigational aids in orthopaedics and plastics/reconstructive surgery and in general surgery.
Exciting advances are being made in surgical video analysis, including for real-time tissue assessment. Of course, such disruption to traditional surgical workflows come with significant challenges including the acceptance of these technologies by the existing surgical workforce, balancing the pursuit of innovation with ethical considerations, privacy and data security, patient safety as well as the involvement of financially incentivized companies in the development and implementation of AI technologies.
In parallel, medical school teaching will also likely need to evolve to equip the next generation of doctors with the skills necessary to engage with and optimally interpret AI and machine learning based research, upon which their practice will likely be founded. Traditional scientific literature evaluation methods, although remaining generally important, feature less prominently in modern AI-based publications where familiarity with data analytics, machine learning fundamentals (including Deep Learning) and AI evaluation metrics (such as average training accuracy, validation accuracy and f-scores) are paramount.
Embracing the incorporation of new AI-based technologies in surgery will help to enhance the benefits listed as well as minimize challenges. It promises to be an exciting time of evolution in surgery with opportunities for all involved parties.
This article is part of The New Technologies for Future of Surgery in Ireland RCSI Working Group Report 2024
