Institute for Surgical Excellence Hosts the 2025 AI-Enhanced Surgical Practice Consensus Conference
Philadelphia, PA – December 8, 2025 — The Institute for Surgical Excellence (ISE) is proud to announce the outstanding success of its 2025 Consensus Conference on AI-Enhanced Surgical Practice, marking one of the most impactful and productive meetings in the organization’s history. Now with 18 consensus conferences convened to date, ISE continues to lead national and international efforts to advance surgical innovation, training, and patient safety with emerging technologies.
More than 50 leading experts participated in this year’s conference, including surgeons, computer scientists, AI researchers, academic leaders, robotics and technology companies, and legal and regulatory representatives. The breadth and depth of expertise created a uniquely collaborative and multidisciplinary environment, producing rapid progress on consensus-driven standards for the use of artificial intelligence across the surgical continuum.
A cornerstone of the conference’s success was the extensive pre-meeting preparation led by Drs. Jeffrey Levy and Justin Collins, with key contributions from Drs. Ahmed Ghazi, Carla Pugh, Dimitrios Stefanidis, and Martin Martino, among others. This groundwork enabled the group to conduct the most efficient and well-structured consensus process in ISE’s history, allowing participants to move swiftly into discussions across the domains of Data, Implementation, and Evaluation.
An accelerated Delphi survey process was conducted over a 5-day period. This structured, iterative consensus-building method gathers input from a panel of experts until a stable level of agreement is reached, ensuring that the final recommendations reflect broad, interdisciplinary consensus. Remarkably, all three rounds of the Delphi process were completed by 100% of participants, reflecting the strong engagement and commitment of the multidisciplinary team. ISE will now begin drafting peer-reviewed publications summarizing the conference outcomes.
Jeffrey Levy, MD, Executive Director of the Institute for Surgical Excellence, emphasized the significance of this milestone event:
"I am so grateful for the expertise and commitment of the extraordinary group of over 50 multidisciplinary leaders who participated in the 2025 ISE AI-Enhanced Surgical Practice Consensus Conference. It was truly one of the most impactful meetings in ISE’s history and will help define national/international standards for the safe, effective, and responsible integration of artificial intelligence into surgical practice."
The outcomes of the conference will contribute to shaping global frameworks for AI-enhanced surgical care, influencing clinical practice, regulatory pathways, training, and the future of surgical safety and performance.
About the Institute for Surgical Excellence (ISE)
The Institute for Surgical Excellence is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving patient outcomes by advancing surgical training, innovation, and evidence-based standards. Through multidisciplinary collaboration, consensus development, and global partnerships, ISE leads efforts to define best practices and accelerate the responsible adoption of emerging technologies in surgery.
