UW and University of Texas Southwestern Surgery Team Up on Study to Reduce Surgical Errors

A research team from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas Southwestern has received a $1.6 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study how the OR Black Box® can help reduce surgical errors. Led by Dr. Courtney Balentine and Dr. Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, the project will use data captured by the OR Black Box to develop immersive simulation training aimed at improving surgical safety and team performance.

UT Southwestern has already implemented the OR Black Box in all 37 of its operating rooms, using the data to support several quality improvement initiatives. The new project will build on this foundation by using machine learning to create adaptive training scenarios that reflect real-life surgical events. The team will pilot the simulation training with surgical teams to evaluate its effectiveness and explore how the OR Black Box and training can be scaled across other hospitals to enhance patient outcomes.