From left: Vikram Mohan, global head of digital health solutions at Roche; Dr. Rowland Illing, global chief medical officer and director of healthcare at Amazon Web Services; Dr. Hosam Mattar, cofounder and chief health officer at Kera Health Platform; and Juli Hysenbelli, global lead of connected care at AWS Healthcare and Lifesciences
Photo courtesy of Nathan Eddy
LAS VEGAS – Hospitals are exploring new ways to connect surgical and inpatient care using digital tools and real-time data, with technologies such as smart OR systems that provide new connectivity for the operating room, according to a panel at the 2026 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exposition here last week.
During the HIMSS26 session, Dr. Rowland Illing, global chief medical officer and director of healthcare at Amazon Web Services (AWS), explained that despite decades of digital transformation across healthcare, the operating room has remained one of the least visible and least connected environments inside hospitals.
"Surgery is no exception to the digitalization of healthcare," Illing said. "But the OR remains the black box of the hospital."
However, emerging "Smart OR" systems are beginning to connect surgical tools, imaging systems and patient monitoring devices into a unified digital environment.
Illing said the transformation involves far more than adding new equipment to operating rooms. Instead, it requires treating the OR as a connected data ecosystem that links edge-computing systems inside the surgical suite with cloud-based analytics platforms.
"You need real-time intelligence with ultra-low latency," he said, describing the shift as an "edge-to-cloud story" that delivers immediate insights during procedures while also capturing large volumes of surgical data for later analysis.
In the future, Illing said nearly every device in the operating room – from surgical instruments to monitoring equipment – will include integrated networking, computing and storage capabilities. He anticipates that the connected systems will generate new streams of clinical data that can help clinicians make more informed decisions during surgery.
"We need to think of the OR as one organism," Illing said.
Dr. Hosam Mattar, cofounder and chief health officer at Kera Health Platform, said surgical video also represents one of the most underused data sources in the operating room today.
While hospitals capture large volumes of procedural footage, much of it is rarely analyzed in ways that could improve surgical performance or decision-making.
"Video is a very important part of the digital force in the OR," Mattar said. "We have a lot of data for procedures, but there is no true analysis of that data so far."
Analyzing surgical video could eventually support real-time clinical decision assistance during procedures, he said, as well as provide a powerful educational resource for surgical trainees.
By identifying patterns in how procedures unfold, including common mistakes and variations in technique, these tools could help improve outcomes and shorten procedure times.
"For training purposes, videos that are analyzed and shown to students help them see real procedures and the patterns that occur," Mattar said. "That helps improve education and results."
He added that medical schools will likely need to adopt these technologies as part of modern surgical training.
Vikram Mohan, global head of digital health solutions at Roche, noted that roughly 300 million surgical procedures are performed worldwide each year, and even small differences in technique or workflow can significantly influence patient outcomes.
"Variability is the key thing that stands out," Mohan said.
Some of that variability also carries financial consequences. Mohan cited research suggesting that many surgical complications may be avoidable. Those complications can lead to longer hospital stays, additional procedures and costly readmissions.
Digital technologies offer a way to reduce those risks by making surgical processes more transparent and measurable. By capturing and analyzing data generated during procedures, hospitals can begin to identify patterns that lead to better outcomes.
The goal, Mohan said, is not to eliminate clinical judgment but to standardize the foundational elements of surgical workflows.
"Surgery is ultimately an art," Mohan said. "But we can standardize core workflows, safety protocols and how we capture data while preserving clinical judgment."
Illing added that real-time analytics could eventually provide surgeons with early warning systems that detect potential complications before they escalate.
"An early warning assist can change the outcome but doesn't interfere with the clinician," Mohan added.
The long-term vision is a connected surgical ecosystem where devices, clinical insights and patient data flow seamlessly through integrated platforms. In that environment, surgical teams would gain greater visibility into procedures while health systems could analyze outcomes at scale.
"The view of digital surgery we see is a connected ecosystem where devices, insights and data are connected," Mohan said.
