James Mooney

Thanks for having me, Carly.

I've listened to Becker's in the past, and I think you guys do a great job covering the healthcare system, so I really appreciate the opportunity.

Yeah, so my name is James Mooney.

I'm a complex and minimally invasive spine surgeon here at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

I'm a new faculty.

I did my training down in Birmingham, Alabama at the University of Alabama for seven years in neurosurgery residency, and then I was up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a complex and minimally invasive spine deformity fellowship.

I'm so excited to be in Richmond and growing the program here.

Yeah, of course.

So I think, you know, with any field, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of everyone's minds.

And so from my standpoint as a complex spine surgeon, you know, I think about what are the areas that AI is going to assist us with in the OR.

And so

I think there's a number of categories as far as planning for these bigger spine deformity surgeries.

So, you know, that ranges from radiographic planning to the execution of complex spine surgeries.

You know, ultimately, I think we're heading towards a future where every surgery is ultimately planned and executed according to evidence-based

And that's multifactorial where AI can, number one, help us choose who to operate on.

Number two, help us construct our surgical plans.

And then lastly, help us execute the plan in the OR and monitor our progress towards our preoperative goals intraoperatively.

And then I think really the next frontier for artificial intelligence and healthcare as a whole and specific to spine surgery is incorporating these AI paradigms into our clinical decision-making.

Right now, if you ask five different spine surgeons how to approach a case, you might get five different answers.

So how do we utilize AI to help standardize decision-making for spine surgeons and help choose the best option for each unique patient?