Preempting the Trough of Disillusionment in Surgical AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being hailed as a panacea in clinical decision-making, operational efficiency, and quality improvement. However, its use in real-world clinical settings remains limited. Thornton et al describe implementation and deimplementation of the OR Black Box, an intraoperative data collection and analysis product (Surgical Safety Technologies, Inc), outlining several challenges in implementing and extracting value from the tool. These challenges arose from unmet expectations of functionality, its need for extensive local algorithmic training, and latency in the delivery of insights. As more AI systems are deployed, we will soon find ourselves in a “trough of disillusionment” unless important steps are taken.