42: 440,000 Deaths Each Year Due to Preventable Medical Errors and How One Startup, Scalpel, and It’s Founder, Dr. Yesh, is Fighting to Reduce That Number

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Surgery, Patient Safety, AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Medical errors, and Human Factors

About Yesh CEO and Founder:

“I am a generalist who builds technologies that improve healthcare. Trained as a dentist, I have over five years of interdisciplinary experience in healthcare and technology (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Computer Vision). I previously built a startup (Open Simulation) to provide low-cost surgical simulation using Augmented Reality. In my PhD, I designed and evaluated one of the first immersive virtual reality training tools for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. I can understand healthcare challenges from a clinical point of view and build tools that address those needs. Currently, I am focused on making surgery safer through Scalpel Ltd.” Source

About Scalpel

“To help hospitals reduce preventable errors and cut down costs in litigation, Scalpel Ltd. is building an end to end patient safety platform. This AI-powered platform checks and verifies the implementation of safety steps during surgery using a combination of computer vision and machine learning technologies. Unlike standard checklists, Scalpel’s solution doesn’t require any human interaction, sitting in the background in any operating room it automatically monitors, it provides real-time feedback to detect and prevent errors.”

Key factors that this startup is working on or with: Surgery, Patient Safety, AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Medical errors, and Human Factors

Website link

Hyperlinked Timestamped Show Notes:

1. [ 01:20 ] Why he choose to build Scalpel, his backstory, and his failure turning into a success.
2. [ 03:58 ] How Scalpel makes surgeries safer, and how it works.
3. [ 06:20 ] How problems creep in (i.e. Martin Bromley).
4. [ 08:40 ] How big of an impact, and how medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the USA.
5. [ 11:10 ] Why we have not thought of this solution before, and what separates humans vs machines.
6. [ 14:50 ] How he has gotten people involved who help determine to what extent this technology will be appreciated.
7. [ 16:35 ] His process to get this in as many hospitals as possible.
8. [ 17:35 ] Where they are now, and what features they would work on next.
9. [ 19:11 ] What tools he has used to developed this technology.
10. [ 21:45 ] Who all is a part of the team, and how they help.
11. [ 23:52 ] What hurtles he has overcome.
12. [ 28:18 ] Lessons he has learned from his dental background.
13. [ 29:59 ] Other nuggets of wisdom he has come across in his experiences.
14. [ 32:48 ] His resource recommendations.
15. [ 36:11 ] How people can follow along with his journey (i.e. website).