Why the operating room is ripe for AI, according to Akara - Equity Recap

Podcast: Equity

Published: 2025-12-24

Duration: 27 minutes

Guests: Connor McGinn

Summary

Akara, co-founded by Connor McGinn, aims to optimize hospital operating room efficiency using thermal sensors and AI, addressing coordination issues that result in significant time and revenue losses for hospitals.

What Happened

Connor McGinn, co-founder and CEO of Akara, discusses the inefficiencies plaguing hospital operating rooms that cost hospitals two to four hours of productivity each day. This isn't due to the surgeries themselves, but rather the chaos surrounding manual scheduling and room turnover. Akara's solution involves using thermal sensors and AI to create an 'air traffic control' system for hospitals, automating event documentation and freeing up nursing staff from manual data entry tasks.

Akara's technology uses thermal sensors focused on human body temperature to track key surgical events, ensuring privacy as it doesn't capture identifiable images. This system not only creates historical records but also provides real-time insights through actionable dashboards and alerts. Since Q2 2024, the technology has been tested in California's operating rooms and has already shown promising results in improving efficiency.

The NHS served as a crucial entry point for Akara, providing a rigorous vetting process that helped the company gain credibility and pave the way for expansion into the US market. McGinn emphasizes that the real bottleneck in medical robotics is not the robots themselves, but the existing infrastructure, which often requires retrofits to accommodate new technologies.

With a potential 40% reduction in the nursing workforce anticipated within five years due to poor working conditions, automation becomes increasingly important. Akara's system is designed to be easily installed, avoiding the high upfront costs that come with rewiring hospital rooms, making it highly suitable for retrofitting existing infrastructures.

Connor McGinn also notes that operating rooms can cost hospitals upwards of $100 a minute to run and are responsible for up to 70% of a hospital's revenue, highlighting the critical need to optimize these environments. Akara's ambient sensing approach aims to add structure to hospital workflows without the friction that typically accompanies the introduction of robots.

Besides operating rooms, Akara sees potential applications for its technology in procedural rooms and in monitoring patients with cognitive decline, showcasing the versatility and scalability of their solutions.

Key Insights

• Operating rooms can cost hospitals over $100 per minute to operate and are responsible for up to 70% of a hospital's revenue, highlighting the financial impact of inefficiencies in these environments.
• Akara's AI technology uses thermal sensors to track surgical events by detecting human body temperature, ensuring privacy as it does not capture identifiable images.
• The NHS provided a rigorous vetting process for Akara, which helped the company gain credibility and facilitated its expansion into the US market.
• A potential 40% reduction in the nursing workforce is anticipated within five years due to poor working conditions, making automation systems like Akara's increasingly vital for maintaining hospital efficiency.