Today's Edition
SAMIHAH ZAMAN (ABU DHABI)
Experts in the UAE are pioneering a new system that aims to enhance patient surgical outcomes through the use of advanced neuro-adaptive artificial intelligence.
The AI technology has already been used to monitor and enhance several orthopaedic procedures since October 2023, said Dr Olivier Oullier, Visiting Professor of Practice – Human Computer Interaction at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).
“Surgeons often perform multiple procedures a day that are very long, and yet each requires the highest levels of skills, expertise, and management. This [level of mental acuity and focus] is especially critical because so many unexpected things can happen during a procedure,” Dr Oullier told Aletihad.
“So for the past two years or so, we have been using neuro-adaptive AI to monitor – in real-time – surgeons’ levels of stress, attention, and cognitive load during procedures performed at the Internal Knee and Joint Centre in Abu Dhabi. Ultimately, what we want to do with artificial intelligence systems like this is to improve patient outcomes,” he explained.
As part of the pilot study conducted by the MBZUAI and the International Knee and Joint Centre, surgeons don a brainwave-sensing headset, along with wearable devices that monitor heartbeat and other vital signs when performing a procedure. The system provides real-time feedback to surgeons on their levels of stress and fatigue.
“For instance, if a surgeon is about to enter a critical phase of the surgery, they can pause, look at their level of stress, and decide that maybe I need to pause, breathe a little, and take a few seconds before starting afresh. Without such management, it can leave [room] for medical errors and eventually poor patient outcomes, and that is exactly what we want to resolve using AI,” Dr Oullier said.
The system uses an AI model that is “trained” to understand real-world context. Dr Oullier explained that this approach differs from the kind of training provided to a generative AI model: “We train these models with multimodal data - on brainwaves, facial analysis, eye movement, heartbeat, respiration, and even voice intonation – which provides a lot of information on emotion. It allows the AI to gain some context about the world using these signals, and helps it monitor the cognitive and emotional state of surgeons during surgery.”
Surgeons who use neuro-adaptive AI assistance while performing procedures report being less tired and less stressed. But the ultimate beneficiary is the patient through improved surgical outcomes, Dr Oullier said.
The AI system is currently being refined by MBZUAI, the International Knee and Joint Centre, and Inclusive Brains, an assistive AI developer that Dr Oullier heads. It has so far been used during orthopaedic surgeries that last between two and four-and-a-half hours, including for procedures that involve knee replacement, knee prosthetic implants, and tendon repair.
Asked why the trial focuses on orthopaedic procedures, Dr Oullier said it was a result of a chance meeting between two experts keen to improve the quality of care, namely himself and Dr Sebastien Parratte, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the International Knee and Joint Centre.
The team at the heart of developing the system is now looking to report its results, and exploring partnerships with other hospitals in the region, with the goal of having the first product prototype up and running within two years.
“We are already seeing AI transform healthcare, from improving the quality of patient records and medical records, allowing interoperability and unified usage of data, and enabling the development of new solutions and proteins. Some of the greatest advances are in the treatment of cancer, and in the personalisation of medicine and preventive care,” Dr Oullier said.
AI is also improving a wide range of healthcare processes, from hospital administration and operations to energy management, supply chains, and even the operating room, he added. “At the MBZUAI, we are at the forefront of [pioneering] and providing these solutions.”
The Abu Dhabi-based institution, famed for being the world’s first graduate-level, research-based AI university, this month highlighted its healthcare innovations to showcase how AI is reshaping the future of the sector, including in longevity science, human genomics, therapeutics, and multimodal foundation models.
