Sancheti Hospital in Pune, India, has introduced OrthoAI, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to assist orthopaedic professionals in accessing comprehensive medical literature.

Said to be the first of its kind in orthopaedics, the initiative leverages artificial intelligence to provide doctors with up-to-date content from thousands of published articles and videos in a centralised platform. This will aid them in making informed decisions.

Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, a scientist who inaugurated OrthoAI, emphasises the need for collaboration among healthcare professionals, data scientists, and policymakers to address challenges associated with new technologies such as AI.

To help orthopaedic professionals get the best possible outcomes for their patients, the tool was developed over the past year by a team of doctors from Sancheti Hospital and IT professionals from Pune-based software company Script Lanes.

It is an evidence-based generative AI built on LLM and a cognitive search model to supply answers to queries along with citations to recent literature and related videos.

The initiative aims to enhance decision-making in orthopaedics, particularly in complex cases involving older patients with comorbidities or paediatric cases with congenital abnormalities.

Sancheti Hospital consultant orthopaedic surgeon and head of academics and research Dr Ashok Shyam was quoted as saying by The Indian Express: “It is challenging to keep up with current literature, which is dynamic, vast and ever-expanding. Every surgeon’s experience varies too.

“So it will help if we have shared experiences. Hence OrthoAI takes into account both aspects and searches the literature through PubMed and experience-based knowledge from OrthoTV.

“So it is like a co-pilot for orthopaedic surgeons in making decisions. Since these decisions are optimised by literature and shared experiences, it can help in using resources in a better way.

“AI is an evolving concept, and we will keep evolving with a tab on ethics and safety.”