Why the operating room is ripe for AI, according to Akara

What It Covers

Akara CEO Connor McGinn explains how thermal sensors and AI automate operating room coordination, recovering two to four hours of lost productivity daily by tracking surgery phases and alerting staff in real time.

Key Questions Answered

• •OR efficiency loss: Operating rooms lose two to four hours daily not from surgeries but from manual coordination between cases—calling cleaners, coordinating patient transfers, and preparing rooms while surgeries run thirty minutes early or late unpredictably.
• •Thermal sensing advantage: Proprietary thermal sensors detect human body temperature at 37 degrees Celsius, capturing surgery phases without privacy concerns or malpractice liability risks that come with optical cameras, while running AI processing entirely on six-inch edge devices.
• •Market entry strategy: Starting with low-friction ambient sensing that automates nurse documentation builds trust and data infrastructure before introducing robots, proving more effective than leading with automation in risk-averse hospitals that resist immediate workflow changes despite long-term efficiency goals.
• •Predictive scheduling system: AI agents analyze historical case data, billing information, and surgeon-specific patterns to recommend accurate surgery durations instead of arbitrary time blocks, addressing the core problem that most surgeries finish thirty minutes before or after scheduled times.