Surgical Data Science Collective is thrilled to announce the addition of Dr. Christopher S. Graffeo MD MS, as one of the inaugural members of our Clinical Leadership Committee. Dr. Graffeo, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Associate Program Director, and Medical Student Director at the University of Oklahoma, brings a wealth of expertise to the role. His clinical focus includes cerebrovascular techniques, skull base tumors, radiosurgery, and neuroanatomy while his research emphasizes advanced modeling strategies for observational data, education, and surgical neuroanatomy.
In this Q&A, we delve deeper into the role of AI in surgery while offering a glimpse into how he plans to contribute to the future of surgical practice and education at SDSC.
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in Neurosurgery?
A: When I was a medical student, I fell in love with the anatomy, the diseases, and most of all the patients—it’s a privilege to take care of people with neurosurgical diseases, and when I finally had the opportunity to spend some time with neurosurgeons, I realized I had found my tribe.
Q: What excites you most about the potential of AI in surgery?
A: Candidly, I think the area where AI makes the biggest long-term impact in surgery will catch us all by surprise–it’s probably something that nobody has even thought of yet. With that said, I think the highest-yield applications for short-term impact will all center around education, whether that’s helping trainees accelerate their progress along the learning curve, or empowering junior faculty like me to continue making rapid progress toward mastery in our early careers.
Q: What do you perceive as the biggest challenges in AI in surgery right now?
A: Integrating new technology into the operating room can be an intimidating proposition, given the broad and potentially significant concerns surrounding core values such as safety, quality, and confidentiality. From the surgeon’s perspective, the culture of a high-performance operating room inevitably includes routine and efficiency, and so when a new device, software, or other innovative tool like AI comes along, the most significant challenge is often figuring out how to integrate it in a way that is minimally disruptive to getting your cases done as effectively as possible.
Q: What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?
A: I was recently made the Associate Program Director here at OU, which is a tremendous honor, and something that has inspired me to bring a laser focus to educational opportunities for our residents and medical students. We have a lot of exciting and ongoing initiatives, but in addition to building tools with SDSC that will deliver objective feedback for residents on microsurgical performance and progress over time, we’re also working on simulation systems for surgical decision-making, and a range of other novel curricular elements.
Q: What made you decide to join the Clinical Leadership Committee at SDSC?
A: Dan is a friend and respected colleague, so I was already intrigued when I saw the early publications and talks that eventually led to the development of SDSC, but what really convinced me to get involved was the opportunity to help guide the development of high-impact tools within the SDSC platform that I think will be especially beneficial for residents and junior surgeons looking to take their skills to the next level.
Q: What are you hoping to accomplish with SDSC?
A: In the months ahead, I think we are going to develop a number of really exciting tools together for educational applications, in particular. And beyond that? Here’s hoping we stumble into that wildly impactful AI use case that nobody has thought of yet ;-P
Q: What’s your favorite Surgical Video Platform feature?
A: At this point, I’m still exploring a lot of the features, but I think the machine learning-based analytics are by far the most promising, especially in the setting of endoscopic endonasal operations.
Q: What’s your favorite Olympic sport? Why?
A: Diving! Mostly because I was a springboard diver in high school, but even if I hadn’t been, I still think it would be the most beautiful and exciting to watch
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