Johnson & Johnson MedTech Creates AI Fund for Surgical Innovation

Johnson & Johnson MedTech today launched the Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery to help develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions that solve challenges in surgery. Joined by a coalition of companies including NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the initiative augments Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s work to advance AI that will help redefine modern surgical practices and improve patient outcomes.

The Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery aims to ensure innovation is both accelerated and responsibly governed, and will focus on proposals that support AI model development, data engineering and management, and AI governance. The Fund’s will first work to leverage the QuickFire Challenge program, which will seek submissions from applicants and grant funding for selected awardees from academic and non-academic institutions, researchers, developers, startups, and established companies.

The Fund is designed to help accelerate advancements in surgical AI by supporting innovative projects and research in this field. The program aims to responsibly fast-track the development and deployment of AI tools and solutions for surgery by providing financial assistance, resources, workshops, and mentorship to eligible innovators. The QuickFire Challenge program aims to mobilize through 2026, including grant funding from Johnson & Johnson MedTech and/or access to computing tools, tech-stacks, solutions and compliant datasets from Johnson & Johnson MedTech and its partner network.

Building on Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s nearly 140 years in surgery, NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure, and AWS’s cloud leadership, this collaborative effort unites expertise. Innovators will benefit from best-in-class resources and mentorship, complete with developer workshops and programs on Johnson & Johnson MedTech, NVIDIA, and AWS technologies.

“Open innovation and open minds breed the best solutions in service of patients,” said Hani Abouhalka, group chairman, Surgery, Johnson & Johnson MedTech. “Surgeons and their teams are asking for AI to make an impact. We are in a position to convene solutions that can improve surgery and offer the expertise and infrastructure to bring these solutions to light through our digital ecosystem. I am excited to hear from individuals and teams on a mission to use AI for good and to make the surgery experience better for everyone involved.”

Advancing AI for Surgery

The pressing need for healthcare innovation through digital transformation and AI solutions is evident in a Johnson & Johnson MedTech survey that showed nearly 95% of healthcare professionals support greater AI integration into daily healthcare practices.

The Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery builds on the work launched last year between Johnson & Johnson MedTech and NVIDIA to accelerate secure, real-time analysis of surgical data through the Polyphonic Digital Ecosystem. The companies are now furthering AI-based solutions for surgery by addressing key challenges with data privacy, surgical learning and proficiency building, surgical data automation enrichment, and enabling efficiency in R&D processes.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech is also leveraging the collaboration to accelerate the ways in which AI innovation can reach global operating rooms (ORs), specifically by creating high-quality data sets enriched with AI-based annotations, thus enabling collaborative AI model development, and establishing a governance framework for surgical video data science. NVIDIA’s purpose-built solutions, including the NVIDIA IGX edge computing platform and the NVIDIA Holoscan platform, are designed to help accelerate outcomes throughout the ecosystem and speed the development and deployment of AI-accelerated applications in a secure and scalable manner.

“We are just scratching the surface of what’s possible when surgeons and technologists come together to solve problems,” said Dr. Amin Madani,* an endocrine and acute care surgeon. “Surgeons and researchers want their work in AI to make an impact, but we are challenged to find a path from bench to bedside. I am excited about the potential to merge expertise across academia and private sector to build the necessary infrastructure and scale AI around the world and for the patients who need it most.”

The Polyphonic ecosystem is available in early access to select hospitals only.

For more than 100 years, Johnson & Johnson has helped advance surgical care through wound closure products, adjunctive hemostats, surgical stapling technology and instruments, robotics and digital solutions. With clinicians and healthcare experts worldwide, the company strives to better solve patient needs in metabolic and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and aesthetics and reconstruction. Through its expertise in innovative medicine and medtech, Johnson & Johnson is positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions to deliver breakthroughs and profoundly impact health.

* Dr. Madani is a paid consultant for Johnson & Johnson MedTech.