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As the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow in medicine and healthcare, discussion of the topic can sometimes take on a fever pitch that can obfuscate some of the real impact that AI is making todayand what it can do tomorrow.

In todays Distinguished Lecture of the International Society of Surgery: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Global Surgery, Ewen Harrison, MBChB, MSc, PhD, FRCS, will explore three areas of AI: enhancing precision care through prediction, democratizing surgical expertise, and thinking deeply about ethical and socioeconomic implications.

Professor Harrison, a professor of surgery and data science and honorary consultant surgeon at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, will discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of AI based on his experience and what he calls the amazing excitement in this area with some unvarnished truths about expectations.

My takeaway is simple. Clinical staff and AI developers must collaborate more effectively to improve quality and relevance, and we must see more global collaboration in AI and data science to improve the delivery of surgical care everywhere, Professor Harrison said, which builds on the Surgeons United theme of Clinical Congress.

The technology is already making an impact in preoperative planning, intraoperative assistance, and postoperative monitoring, and it could have important implications for global surgery.

As transformative as AI can be, though, it is not a panacea for improving care in surgery, he suggests. There are fundamental issues to understand, tackle, and mitigate against in all aspects of AI, including biases that exist in much of the extant data. The contributing voices in how AI is used need to be equitable.

Across the world, there is great potential for remote assistance in clinical care and in the operating room, for better training and simulation, and for the standardization of care to ensure best practice is adopted broadly, Professor Harrison said. However, as I will show, the Global South has little voice in these issues, something that has to change if we are to see equity in the benefits of these tools.

Such technology as ChatGPT can have profound implications in global healthcare, both positive and negative, Dr. Harrison said. He will share his GPT4 systematic review of AI in surgerymore than 7,700 abstracts processed by modeland discuss its power and limitations.

To take full advantage of AI in surgery, surgeons, clinicians, and other stakeholders need to get involved at the outset, which is already starting to happen with postoperative wearable sensors, for example. Global nursing teams are setting priorities, adapting ideas for different cultures and contexts, and working out how the new AI tool integrates with the existing health system, he said.

Understanding the prevailing attitudes about AI in medicine, Professor Harrison said he wants to impart to the audience and his colleagues that they can and should play a role in seeing what comes next.

People often see AI in healthcare in one of three ways: as a curiosity, a savior, or a threat. But it is, of course, none of those things, Professor Harrison said. Many of the tasks AI will contribute to in healthcare are not yet defined. We must respond to this undifferentiation and co-create what comes next. It is malleable, it is iterative, and it is in our control.

The Distinguished Lecture of the International Society of Surgery was established in 1990 and endowed by the US Chapter of the International Society of Surgery to recognize the Society'simportant activities by honoring distinguished international surgeons.

For those who are unable to attend the lecture at 8:00 am in Room 104ABC of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, it also will be made available for on-demand viewing shortly after the live presentation.

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Lecturer Will Discuss the Transformative, Global Power of AI in ... - American College of Surgeons