Medtronic Unveils Touch Surgery Aide AI Computing for Surgical Robotics

Medtronic presented an early look at its next-generation computing platform for the operating room, Touch Surgery Aide.

The artificial intelligence (AI)-native surgical computing platform powers the company’s Touch Surgery ecosystem, enabling real-time AI during procedures. Touch Surgery Aide will be shared at this week’s Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS) annual meeting.

The platform enables multimodal AI-driven support during surgery. This offers access to actionable insights bring surgeries, supports case review, and helps inform continuous improvement in clinical decision-making, Medtronic said.

Touch Surgery Aide incorporates NVIDIA’s accelerated computing infrastructure, using the company’s Holoscan, CUDA, and TensorRT to provide AI-powered insights in the moment. It combines computer vision, multimodal AI, and accelerated inference to process surgical video and procedural context in real time. This allows multiple AI applications to run at the same time during a live procedure, processing and acting on surgical data.

Instrument Exit Point (IEP) is Medtronic’s first real-time AI application for robotic surgery. It runs on Touch Surgery Aide for use with the Hugo robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) system and has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance.

With computer vision, IEP creates a visual notification when select instruments move beyond the visible field of view during a robotic procedure. The company said it represents a first step in bringing AI-enable support into robotic surgery, with the platform engineered to support expansion into laparoscopic surgery over time.

In December, the Hugo RAS system won an FDA nod for use in urologic surgical procedures. Last month, Medtronic revealed 510(k) submissions to expand Hugo into general and gynecologic specialties in the U.S.

Comments from Medtronic execs

Jim Peichel, chief technology officer: “Real-time AI marks a new frontier for healthcare—it is a fundamental evolution in how surgery is supported, moving from technology that assists the surgeon’s hand to technology that helps teams work smarter, move faster, and deliver greater impact in the moment.”

George Murgatroyd, GM & VP, Digital Technologies: “Surgery is on the cusp of a generational shift, powered by AI and advanced compute. The Touch Surgery ecosystem, powered by Touch Surgery Aide, establishes a platform for a new generation of embedded connectivity, seamlessly integrating advanced capabilities into surgical workflows and reinforcing Medtronic’s commitment to delivering the best possible care, for every patient, anywhere.”