Toronto doctor develops AI prototype to help reduce surgical complications

When Dr. Amin Madani isn't removing burst appendixes or excising cancerous cells from his patients, he's thinking about how to improve the performance of surgeons in the operating room.

That's because up to 25 per cent of the millions of people who undergo inpatient operations each year around the world experience negative complications either during or after surgery, according to the World Health Organization. These adverse affects can range from soreness at the incision site to internal bleeding to death. 

Although not all of these adverse events are caused by the actions of surgeons, some are, and Madani — a general surgeon with the Sprott Department of Surgery at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto — wants to reduce that risk.

He was researching the techniques and thought processes used by the most elite, highest-skilled surgeons, when a group of data and computer scientists suggested he could use artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic their minds.

"I was a big skeptic, actually, for the longest time," Madani said. "That's a big statement to make."

The resulting collaboration produced a prototype that uses computer vision — a field of AI that trains computers to interpret and understand images — to identify in real time areas of an organ that are safe to dissect, and those where it is dangerous to do so. 

WATCH | How artificial intelligence identifies safe dissection areas during gallbladder surgery:

It's part of a flurry of activity in recent years among researchers, health-care workers and companies who are attempting to harness the power of digital technology to provide better medical care.

Madani's technology is still in the early stages, and currently only applicable to gallbladder surgeries. But, he says it has the potential to improve surgery around the world, particularly in rural communities, remote areas and lower-income countries that lack surgical expertise.  

Other experts agree, although they say there are still challenges to overcome before its potential can be realized.

When surgeons perform gallbladder removal surgery, they make a "keyhole incision" in the patient's stomach, insert a camera into the abdomen and use specialized tools to cut away and remove the organ. 

Madani's technology projects coloured areas onto the video monitor the surgeon uses to see inside the patient's body. Green means that area of the organ is safe to cut, red means it's not.

Another iteration uses a heatmap-style projection that changes colour based on the model's confidence as to where the safe area is.

WATCH | Dr. Amin Madani explains how the prototype could help guide surgeons: