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Generative artificial intelligence in surgery
Severin Rodler1, Conner Ganjavi2, Pieter De Backer3
1USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; Artificial Intelligence Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; Department of Urology, University Hospital of LMU Munich, Germany; Young Academic Working Group in Urologic Technology of the European Association of Urology, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) offers transformative potential in surgery, aiding in preoperative planning, intraoperative decision-making, and postoperative care. This technology enhances data management and surgeon-AI interaction throughout the surgical journey.
Area of Science:
- Surgical Innovation
- Artificial Intelligence Applications
- Medical Informatics
Background:
- Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) excels at processing and presenting complex information.
- The integration of GAI into surgical workflows is an emerging field with significant potential.
- Existing surgical practices can be enhanced through advanced AI capabilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comprehensive overview of current and future applications of GAI in surgery.
- To explore GAI's role across the entire surgical continuum: preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases.
- To highlight GAI's potential in improving surgical planning, decision support, and patient management.
Main Methods:
- This paper presents a perspective on GAI in surgery, synthesizing current knowledge and future trends.
- It reviews GAI's capabilities in data extraction, information synthesis, and communication.
- The analysis covers GAI's utility from preoperative planning to postoperative follow-up.
Main Results:
- GAI can assist in preoperative planning by extracting patient data and providing procedural simulations.
- Intraoperatively, GAI can document previously uncaptured data and aid decision-making.
- Postoperatively, GAI supports patient discharge and follow-up, offering real-time feedback and data storage.
Conclusions:
- GAI applications in surgery are evolving into specialized tools for specific tasks like data management and communication.
- GAI holds significant potential to streamline surgical processes and enhance surgeon-AI collaboration.
- The future of surgery may involve GAI playing a pivotal role in optimizing patient care and surgical outcomes.
