Agenda | AI & Robotics in Medicine 2025 - Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Purdue University

Even as this fourth revolution in surgery in 25 years (robotic surgery) continues to gain in acceptance, a much more disruptive change is beginning as the next revolution, Artificial Intelligence, which is just the tip of the iceberg that heralds the transition to remote telesurgery for remote (transcontinental) surgery . When combined with other information systems technologies, imaging systems, Virtual Reality (VR), molecular and genetic manipulation, and nanotechnology (to name a few), diseases will also begin to be cured at the cellular and molecular level, and non-invasively. Such systems are based upon the premise that robotics, AI and automation can bring precision, speed and reliability, especially as surgery ‘descends’ into operating at the cellular and molecular level.

In addition when robotics combines with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the 5th and 6th generation (5G and 6G) telecommuications, supercomputing, and telesurgery, there will be an exponential increase in opportunities for innovation on a global scale. However, with these opportunities, there will also be significant challenges, not only technological, but also behavioral, humanitarian, political and ethical issues. The time has come to rethink what the future of robotics with AI can bring to surgery.

“Hey Siri, Can you measure my left ventricle ejection fraction?” Despite having full control over the zeitgeist, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has yet to live up to its promise in many fields. Medicine, in particular, has significant upside potential with AI—with hospitals closing, a shortage of physicians and other medical professionals, and an instrinsically difficult domain, AI has a unique opportunity to upskill practice, bringing better care and better training to everyone. This talk will explore the problem, potential value, and early methods in upskilling medical practitioners along two axes.

First, I will describe how visual AI methods are already impacting the cardiothoracic surgical domain via technical and non-technical assessment for more objective training and review. Second, I will describe how interactive, physically-grounded AI guidance can upskill medical practitioners and bring state of the art care into rural settings, which are among the most challenging settings for healthcare delivery. Ultimately, this talk will provide concrete evidence of the potential AI has in upskilling medical practice.