Potential Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Spine Surgery Across the Continuum of Care

Abstract

The worlds of spinal surgery and computational science are intersecting at the nexus of the operating room and across the continuum of patient care. As medicine moves toward digitizing all aspects of a patient's care, immense amounts of patient data generated and aggregated across surgeons, procedures, and institutions will enable previously inaccessible computationally driven insights. These early insights from artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-enabled technologies are beginning to transform medicine and surgery. The complex pathologies facing spine surgeons and their patients require integrative, multimodal, data-driven management strategies. As these data and the technological tools to computationally process them become increasingly available to spine surgeons, AI and ML methods will inform patient selection, preoperatively risk-stratify patients based on myriad factors, and inform interoperative surgical decisions. Once these tools enter early clinical practice, their use creates a virtual flywheel whereby the use of these tools generates additional data that further accelerate the evolution of computational "knowledge" systems. At this digital crossroads, interested and motivated surgeons have an opportunity to understand these technologies, guide their application toward optimal care, and advocate for opportunities where these powerful new tools can deliver step changes in efficiency, accuracy, and intelligence. In the present article, we review the nomenclature and basics of AI and ML and highlight the current and future applications of these technologies across the care continuum of spinal surgery.

Intra-Examiner Reliability and Validity of Sagittal Cervical Spine Mensuration Methods Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

“…It has been demonstrated that abnormal cervical sagittal alignment significantly influences human health and well-being, as it has been shown to be associated with pain [22], disability [23], overall functional performance [24], and quality of life [25]. Despite modern advances in technology related to imaging leading to improved diagnosis and treatment, billions of humans continue to suffer from daily spine and musculoskeletal pain and disability [11,[26][27][28][29]. Physiotherapy, spinal manipulation, and exercise therapy have all been discussed as possible treatments for spine pain.…”