Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery Lab

2025

July

• July 10, 2025: We have two abstracts selected for oral presentations (limited to top 30 submissions) at the Conference on New Technologies for Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery (CRAS 2025)!
  • "Speech-Based Predictors of Nontechnical Skills Performance in Cardiac Surgery"
  • "Evaluation of a Novel Intelligent Interruption Management System in High-Fidelity Simulated Cardiac OR to Improve Surgical Safety"

May

• May 7, 2025: Dr. Marco Zenati will be a keynote speaker at the Conference on New Technologies for Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery (CRAS 2025) in Lisbon, Portugal in September.

April

• April 16, 2025: The "Toward Cognitive Digital Twins in Surgery" workshop (June 27th; co-organized by Dr. Zenati) at The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics is open for registration!
• April 1, 2025: We have five abstracts accepted at The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics!
  • "AI-Based Decision Support for Perfusionists during Cardiopulmonary Bypass"
  • "Voice Acoustic Patterns Predict Quality of Interprofessional Team Behavior in Cardiac Surgery"
  • "Impact of Surgical Flow Disruptions on Neuroergonomics in a High-Fidelity Cardiac Surgery Simulation Environment"
  • "Evaluation of Large Language Models to Detect Team Mental Model Misalignments During Cardiac Surgery Simulation Environment"
  • "Monitoring of Perfusionists’ Cognitive Load and Stress and Patients’ Oxygen Delivery during Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Cardiac Surgery"

March

• March 15, 2025: Dr. Sanjana Mendu presented our work on “Evaluation of a Novel Intelligent Interruption Management System in High-Fidelity Simulated Cardiac OR to Improve Surgical Safety” at the 14th Annual Harvard Surgery Research Day.

February

• February 19, 2025: Our joint workshop proposal titled "Toward Cognitive Digital Twins in Surgery" was accepted at The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics.

January

• January 10, 2025: Congratulations to Annette Martinez-Rioux on her new role as a National Research Nurse through the VA’s Cooperative Studies Program! Thank you for over 10 years of hard work in the MRCAS Lab.

2024

October

• October 19, 2024: Dr. Jake Awtry presented our work on “Assessing Intraoperative Cognitive Workload by Leveraging Deep Learning Networks” at the 2024 ACS Clinical Congress.
• October 10-11, 2024: Dr. Marco Zenati served as Chairperson of the NIH Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences (BTSS) Study Section.

August

• Dr. Roger Dias presented our work on “Exploring Intraoperative Cognitive Biases in Cardiac Surgery Teams” at the 15th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2024).

July

• July 29, 2024: Our work led by Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Metz on “A Novel Multimodal, Intraoperative Cognitive Workload Assessment of Cardiac Surgery Team Members” has been published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
• July 8, 2024: Welcome Dr. Sanjana Mendu, PhD to the MRCAS Lab!
• July 1, 2024: Our work led by Dr. Rayan Harari on “Deep Learning Analysis of Surgical Video Recordings to Assess Nontechnical Skills” has been published in JAMA Network Open. 

June 

• June 25, 2024: The annual Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics at Imperial College London had great participation among the MRCAS lab members:
  • Dr. Marco Zenati was an invited keynote speaker at the “Applying Surgical Data Science in Robotic Surgery” workshop and co-organized the “Hybrid Human-Machine Interaction in Surgery” workshop.
  • Shrivatsa Mishra gave a poster presentation on “Acoustic Patterns of Interprofessional Communication and Quality of Teamwork in the Cardiac Operating Theatre”
  • Dr. Roger Dias gave a poster presentention on “A Clinician-Centered Explainable Artificial Intelligence Framework for Decision Support in the Operating Theatre.”
  • Dr. Rayan Harari gave a poster presentation on “Misalignment of Cognitive Processes within Cardiac Surgery Teams.”
  • Dr. Jake Awtry presented our work on “Accuracy of Machine Learning Predicting Intraoperative Cognitive Workload for AI-based Cognitive Guidance” at the “Hybrid Human-Machine Interaction in Surgery” workshop.
  • Dr. Matthew Gombolay and Zhaoxin Li presented our work on “Using ML for Perfusionists’ Decision Prediction for Robotic-Assisted Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Cardiac Surgery” at the “Hybrid Human-Machine Interaction in Surgery” workshop.

May   

• May 30, 2024: Our book chapter led by Dr. Rayan Harari entitled “Artificial intelligence in cardiothoracic surgery: current applications and future perspectives” was published in Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Practice.
• May 8, 2024: Dr. Marco Zenati gave an invited seminar talk titled “Artificial Intelligence in the Operating Room” at the University of Trento School of Medicine in Italy.

April    

• April 28, 2024: Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Metz presented our work on “Dynamic Cognitive Workload Assessment of Cardiac Surgery Teams during CABG” at the 104^th Annual AATS Meeting in Toronto, Canada. 

February

• February 6-8, 2024: Dr. Rayan Harari presented our work on “A Novel Multimodal Perspective on Objective Assessment of Non-Technical Skills in Cardiac Surgery” at the American Surgical Congress 2024 in Washington DC.

January

• January 18-19, 2024: Dr. Marco Zenati was an invited keynote speaker at the “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and the Protection of Health as a Fundamental Right” international workshop, hosted by the European Community Project JuLIA (Justice, Fundamental Rights and Artificial Intelligence) at the University of Trento in Italy.
• January 10, 2024: Welcome Kylie Ford, Research Coordinator, to the MRCAS Lab!