Becker's Hospital Review

35 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 2 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING Successful deployment of AI in healthcare depends on privacy and trust At many hospitals and health systems, there is considerable concern over bringing AI into mission-critical spaces like the OR. Pathway.AI was developed by a team of former clinicians to specifically address issues they've encountered and to ensure privacy and trust are top priorities. "Not only do we want to respect patients' privacy, we also want to maintain the privacy of OR staff," Passarge said. "Six real- time privacy filters are run on every piece of visual information processed by Pathway.AI to ensure that all patient and clinician information stays protected." Pathway.AI is highly customizable and trains and localizes itself to each OR. Localization is essential because each institution serves a unique set of patients and each OR is used for different types of procedures. "An AI algorithm that's been trained for surgeries on adults, for example, won't work well if it's moved to a children's hospital," Passarge said. "It would be like training an autonomously driving vehicle in the U.K. and putting its AI algorithms in a car in the U.S. — your car would drive on the wrong side of the road." After the base Pathway.AI algorithm is installed, it's localized based on the patients, clinicians and procedures performed in each OR. The data coming out of the system is validated by the customer to ensure the right information is collected. "Many people look at AI algorithms as black boxes — they don't really know what's going on inside or how it's detecting things," Passarge said. "Since our solution is localized to each hospital based on its data, this ensures that we are using an ethical approach to developing the AI model." Once Pathway.AI is live in the OR, the system communicates with staff directly if it identifies an action. This builds trust because teams know the technology is working correctly and at the right times. "The goal isn't to replace jobs with AI, but to enhance what OR teams are able to do by eliminating the burden of documentation through automation. Thus, the OR team should experience a more efficient workload and may even result in happier employees," Passarge said. The future of AI for OR workflow automation is bright While still in its early days, the potential for AI-based solutions in an OR environment is great. Pathway.AI's algorithm is self- learning. As more data is processed, the algorithm's capabilities grow, further improving the clinician experience and knowledge of turnover metrics. "Everyone is feeling the pain of manual processes," Matai said. "Pathway.AI is creating hope for more automation, less manual work and more opportunities to focus on patients. We are right there with the clinicians and can't wait to build this future alongside them." KARL STORZ is a pioneering force in endoscopy and surgical imaging. Its integrated OR solutions are designed to enhance collaboration and clinical efficiency across all sites of care. Headquartered in Germany, KARL STORZ designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets products with an emphasis on visionary design, precision craftsmanship, and clinical effectiveness. " Pathway.AI is creating hope for more automation, less manual work and more opportunities to focus on patients."

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