What You Should Know
- The Collaboration: Oath Surgical is partnering with NVIDIA to power OathOS, a “multimodal” operating system for surgery that uses spatial AI to analyze video, audio, and device data in real-time.
- The Differentiator: Unlike software vendors trying to retrofit legacy hospitals, Oath is vertically integrated—it owns and operates its own “AI-native” surgical centers, allowing it to architect the physical and digital environment simultaneously.
- The Promise: The system aims for “zero-documentation” practices, using agentic AI to handle administrative workflows so surgeons can focus on the procedure, potentially reclaiming the estimated one month per year surgeons lose to inefficient tech.
How “Agentic AI” Could Save Surgeons a Month of Work Every Year
Oath-NVIDIA partnership represents a structural shift: vertically integrated surgery. Oath isn’t just selling software; it owns the physical and digital architecture of its surgical centers. This “first principles” approach allows NVIDIA’s spatial AI to move beyond passive recording into agentic workflows—autonomous digital assistants that reason, plan, and take action during a procedure.
“Surgery is entering an AI era, but it only works if the underlying systems are rebuilt,” said Dr. Oliver Keown, Founder and CEO of Oath Surgical. “Our full-stack platform combines the data, the facilities, and the workflows where care actually happens.”
The “Spatial AI” Advantage
The collaboration brings NVIDIA’s advanced spatial AI infrastructure into the physical OR. This enables OathOS to act as an “ambient” intelligence.
Instead of a surgeon pausing to type notes or dictate disparate findings, OR-mounted smart interfaces and cameras ingest the environment in real-time. The system analyzes surgical video, audio, and operational signals simultaneously.
- In the OR: It runs “agentic workflows” that automate documentation and capture clinical performance data without human input.
- Beyond the OR: It creates a “longitudinal record,” connecting the surgery to pre-op scheduling and post-op outcomes.
This addresses a massive efficiency gap. A 2024 study cited by Oath suggests that outdated technology wastes the equivalent of an entire working month of surgeons’ time every year.
