Revolutionizing Teamwork and Engagement in the Operating Room: AI-Driven Patient Case Narration for Enhanced OR Timeouts

Abstract Background Surgical errors are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the operating room as well as financial burden. The surgical timeout is a crucial step in reducing such errors, though it is often carried out ineffectively and can be unengaging, with quality and efficacy limited by human factors. The development and implementation of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning provides untapped potential to improve surgical timeouts. Methods Avoice-integrated system was developed in conjunction with a leading voice-enablement company, and eight surgical timeouts were performed using this system in cardiothoracic procedures. The Khalpey Artificial Intelligence system consisted of an Android device running KAI Voice at the center of the operating room, taking in vocal input, processing using an independent database and recording for storage/integration into EHR and other systems. A questionnaire was administered to all members of the multidisciplinary surgical team and responses were used to assess key stakeholder opinions. Results Feedback was overwhelmingly positive; team members found it to be more engaging and beneficial to operative flow and teamwork. Strengths were noted to be its improvement of compliance, prevention of surgical errors, and increased awareness of specific procedural details by members of the surgical team. Despite timeout length itself increasing slightly, this did not increase the operative procedure length due to the increases in workflow efficiency intraoperatively. Conclusions Our study shows there to be merit in the use of AI technologies to enhance surgical processes such as the timeout, with the ultimate result of improving patient outcomes and healthcare system efficiency.