AI-powered surveillance of hospital operating rooms expands in Boston

Enlarge / A camera in a hospital. (credit: Getty | Arne Dedert)

AI-powered surveillance technology is quickly making its way into hospital operating rooms around the country, where it works to constantly collect audio, video, patient vital signs, and a wealth of other surgical data, all in the name of improving safety and efficiency.

The surveillance technology has been implanted in operating rooms in over two dozen hospitals in the US and Canada so far. Most recently, the Boston area's Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital became one of the latest adopters of the technology, which is sold by Surgical Safety Technologies Inc. in Toronto.

The AI-powered platform is called the OR Black Box, named after the recording devices used in aircraft to help understand events that led to a disaster or other incident. But the name is a bit of a misnomer. The technology is not a literal black box; it's a set of wide-angled cameras and proprietary, customized AI models. It's also not necessarily intended to sort out the events that led to a surgical disaster or incident after the fact. Rather, it's intended to help prevent any mishaps from happening, and its makers and adopters have had to repeatedly assure medical staff that the all-seeing AI won't be used to pick out individual errors and assign blame to staff.

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