UAE team wins award for AI for robotic surgery — The National
A team from the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in Abu Dhabi won the Robotic Urology Breakthrough Innovation Challenge award at the Erus 26 robotic urological surgery conference in Padua, Italy. The award was presented for the development of Janus AI, a system designed to assist surgeons during robotic operations, The National reports.
Searching for similar stages of surgery
Janus AI analyzes video recorded during a robotic surgical procedure and selects a 30-second clip from a previous operation that corresponds to the current stage of the procedure. The system is compared to a search engine for video recordings of robotic operations: it is intended to give doctors access to relevant examples directly during an intervention.
The development can show a surgeon three videos from previous operations at a similar stage. This makes it possible to compare different approaches used by other doctors and determine the next steps. MBZUAI robotics professor Cesare Stefanini, who supervised the technology’s development, said that such video clips can serve as guidance for doctors when colleagues cannot provide consultations in person.
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Database and further development
The system was named Janus AI after the ancient Roman god Janus, who was depicted with two faces—one looking into the past and the other into the future. This principle reflects the purpose of the technology: to use the experience of previous operations to make decisions during the current intervention.
At present, the video library covers robotic urological procedures, including nephrectomies—operations to remove a kidney. The project was developed jointly with surgeons from the University of Illinois Chicago; the University of Turin also joined the project. A significant part of the work on the system over approximately five months was carried out by MBZUAI postdoctoral researcher Edoardo Fazzari.
Janus AI is not yet ready for use during real operations. Before clinical use, the technology requires further improvement and regulatory approval. The developers plan to expand the library to other surgical procedures, primarily robotic ones, and, once development is complete, find a commercial partner to bring the system to market.
