Johnson & Johnson MedTech announced today that it plans to accelerate and scale AI for surgery in partnership with Nvidia.
The two companies paired up to support increased access to real-time analysis and global AI algorithm availability. They hope to affect surgical decision-making, education and collaboration across the connected operating room (OR).
This marks the latest medtech collaboration involving Nvidia, a leader in AI computing. Asensus Surgical linked up with Nvidia last year to deliver novel clinical intelligence to surgeons in surgical robotics. Medtronic also partnered with Nvidia to enable an AI Access platform to boost the GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module’s capabilities.
Read more on Nvidia and its use of generative AI in the pharmaceutical industry here.
According to a news release, the companies executed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate AI for Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s extensive surgical technologies portfolio with Nvidia’s AI platform for healthcare. Johnson & Johnson MedTech said the technologies allow for fast, secure and real-time AI deployment through its digital surgery ecosystem.
“Johnson & Johnson MedTech is advancing healthcare toward a future that’s more connected and personalized,” said Tim Schmid, EVP and worldwide chair of Johnson & Johnson MedTech. “This future will be increasingly enabled by digital technologies that deliver efficiency, inform decision-making, and extend surgical training and education. Our deep heritage in healthcare and digital ecosystem in surgery and Nvidia’s AI platforms hold enormous potential to create a more connected surgical experience.”
More on the partnership between Johnson & Johnson MedTech and Nvidia
The companies see advanced edge computing allowing for localized data processing in the OR as key to accelerating AI surgery. This step allows AI algorithms to analyze live and stored surgical data in real-time. J&J MedTech says the approach can also help reduce the need for the transfer of sensitive data.
Additionally, it allows for specific applications to run separately within the secure computing environment. That delivers ultra-low latency within the OR when time matters. Nvidia’s IGX edge computing platform and Holoscan edge AI platform create infrastructure to deploy AI-powered software in the OR.
Johnson & Johnson MedTech says it also plans to leverage AI to extend its open ecosystem for surgery. Nvidia’s solutions can help accelerate innovation throughout the ecosystem and speed the development and deployment of AI-powered applications in a secure and scalable manner.
“One of the major challenges in scaling AI for surgery is the closed design of surgical technologies,” said Shan Jegatheeswaran, VP and global head of digital, Johnson & Johnson MedTech. “Bringing advanced edge computing hardware and software to the OR enables scalability of innovation and new AI-powered solutions for clinical decision-making, education and training, and collaboration – with the ultimate goal of advancing patient care.”