Computer Vision in the Operating Room: Opportunities and Caveats

Area of Science:

• Medical technology
• Computer vision
• Surgical informatics

Background:

• Computer vision applications are expanding, with significant potential in healthcare.
• The operating room offers rich data for computational analysis, promising direct patient benefits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review major topics of computer vision in surgical domains.
• To describe computer vision capabilities aiding surgical teams and enhancing patient safety.

Main Methods:

• Literature review involving experts in surgery, computational medicine, and healthcare computer vision.
• Identification of key computer vision applications and their potential impact in surgical settings.

Main Results:

• Computer vision principles are well-supported for surgical applications.
• Potential uses include operating room and endoscopic vigilance, and behavioral analysis of surgical teams.
• Annotated datasets are essential for defining objectives and tracking progress.

Conclusions:

• Interdisciplinary collaboration in computer vision for surgery can significantly improve patient safety, public health, and reduce costs.
• Development of standardized datasets and common objectives is recommended to spur research and industry involvement.