July 10, 2026 · AI in surgery
Protect the Craft
AI in surgery needs consent, transparency, and enforceable rules on how expert skill and surgical data are used.
Clinical expertise and operative recordings should not quietly become commercial training data. Ownership, contractual transparency, and meaningful control must be built into the governance of surgical AI.
Question for the audienceHow do we advance AI in surgery without turning clinicians’ expertise and patients’ data into unconsented commercial fuel?
Source: Elisabeth Mahase. BMJ 2026;393:e100058. doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-100058.