Like OpenTable for the OR: Why Northwestern Medicine is investing in an AI startup

Northwestern Medicine is investing in a technology platform that fills operating room slots like a restaurant reservation app.

The Chicago-based health system joined Minneapolis-based Allina Health and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based HonorHealth in a $105 million series D investment Jan. 13 for healthcare automation company Qventus. Venture capital firm KKR led the funding round.

Northwestern Medicine CIO Doug King told Becker's the 11-hospital system decided to invest in Qventus after using it to drive nearly 17,000 operating room hours this past fiscal year, almost doubling the number of surgical oncology patients able to be operated on sooner. He explained how the artificial intelligence-powered platform works, comparing it to a popular app used to get a table at a restaurant.

"It has advanced technology in the software that looks at OR utilization, how physicians are using that OR block they have, and then it monitors patterns. And then it starts to literally, in an OpenTable-like concept, say, 'Are you going to use this time or are you not?' And the physician can say yes or no, and if they say no, then that block time can be used for another surgeon that is willing to use that," he said.

"Think of it much like restaurant reservations for very complex procedures within the OR, but it handles it quite nicely in an elegant manner that allows our surgeons to be comfortable with it and leverage it to the point where it can hit those metrics I just mentioned."

Mr. King said Northwestern is also working with the company to develop an AI assistant that can call patients prior to surgeries to make sure they are following instructions, like whether to eat beforehand.

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