If Barco says they’re in, then they’re in. They’ve created a large team to make this a success.
Feb 11, 2025
Hey ELSA, open my patient's MRI file and launch a Teams call with Doctor Wood
2024 stories · Healthcare · Innovation · 6 min read
What will the operating room of the future really look like? Barco is working hard to shape that future, in close collaboration with other innovation leaders. Together with med-tech start-up SoftAcuity, for example, we’re creating ELSA, a Brilliant OR Assistant. Bruce Kennedy, SoftAcuity’s founder and CEO, explains how ELSA is set to redefine the operating room experience.
“Nurses and doctors use powerful mobile devices at home, work and in their cars,” Bruce starts. “But things that are simple to do on their mobiles are challenging or impossible in operating rooms. That was the initial vision driving SoftAcuity: make the lives of surgeons and nurses easier by building a large, smartphone-like solution for the OR. Integrating audio, video, sensors, and a robust operating system into the primary surgical display, this platform can then deliver telemedicine applications, AI enhanced co-pilots, real-time clinical guidance, rich communication functionality, workflow enhancement solutions, data management applications, and more.”
Creating an A-Team
Bruce needed what he calls ‘a Global A-Team’ to help build the integrated solution: “SoftAcuity is a team of experienced medical imaging engineers and software developers, yet we cannot create and market the advanced integrated solution we have in mind on our own. The secret to all my past successes has always been great partnerships. I have a specific philosophy about that: I’m exceptionally demanding of my partners, I ask them to do things they've never done, but when we're the best, I'm also extremely loyal.”
The power of partnerships
That’s why Bruce called Johan Fornier, EVP of our Surgical and Modality business unit, with whom he’d collaborated in his previous role as a CTO at endoscopic imaging company Arthrex: “Together with Barco, we developed the most advanced surgical solutions, like the first 4K surgical displays and advanced Nexxis integrations. I knew from these past successes that this would be a great fit for our project. Moreover, Barco has a worldwide commercial network to market the system.”
Innovative vision of the OR
Johan was excited about Bruce’s idea: “The surgical display is the vantage point in every operating room, so it’s the ideal platform to embed computing power and intelligence. I know that Bruce and his team have an innovative vision of the OR and are capable of delivering a really disruptive product. They’re the type of partners we’re looking for to set ourselves apart in the market.”
I know that Bruce and his team have an innovative vision of the OR. They’re the type of partners we’re looking for to set ourselves apart in the market.
Time for sales
For 30+ months, Barco and SoftAcuity have been working closely together to develop ELSA, the smart, integrated display that Bruce and his colleagues had been envisioning since 2021. In March 2024, they demonstrated the very first prototype to a small selection of customers at NVIDIA’s annual conference. “The response was overwhelming,” says Johan. “The pressure is high now to start commercializing the platform.”
Meet ELSA
ELSA is the name of SoftAcuity’s patent-pending smart display. “Think of it as a powerful iPad or smartphone for surgical environments,” Bruce explains. "The 32” broadcast-quality 4K/HDR medical display is equipped with cameras, sensors, microphones, speakers, handy widgets, and web connectivity and boasts an expansive software library. Users can interact with ELSA using touch or Gen AI-enhanced voice control."
Featuring the lastest Nvidia high-performance edge GPU, and cloud connectivity, ELSA collects multiple, synchronous streams of high-value data and is ready to leverage multimodal generative AI tools and clinical applications.
No one has done this before!
The team is currently still testing ELSA in several environments and gathering feedback from other partners and customers. The objective is to launch the first version of the platform by mid-2025.
“That may seem like a long product introduction process, but no one has made a new platform like this before,” Bruce ascertains. “We’re actually building a 32” medical-grade phone, and created the SAI operating system, controlled by voice, for use in challenging operating room environments. It runs in the cloud, leverages new Gen AI solutions and features an app library similar to the AppStore, where Barco as well as third parties can easily add new applications and widgets. Altogether, that’s quite a technical challenge. Moreover, we will meet the strictest regulatory requirements, particularly in Europe, for AI and privacy.”
“In addition, we want to introduce ELSA's software application platform as a service, in a SaaS model. That too, requires an entirely new business model and sales approach,” Johan adds. “This partnership is another token of how Barco is increasingly becoming a software company.”
From basic to advanced: 3 inspiring use cases
“ELSA, log me in, please.”
As ELSA recognizes the surgeon’s voice (and face), logging in to the device will be easy and ultra-secure. All of the surgeon’s or staff preferences and application credentials are loaded into the system. Just like in a mobile phone.
“ELSA, please help me set up the robotic surgery procedure for this patient.”
As a brilliant copilot, ELSA can help the OR team prepare for robotic surgery: check the patient file, browse through the 3,000-page manual of the robot, and then describe what exact procedure to follow. ELSA’s ability to quickly access and retrieve information from large manuals to solve technical problems could be valuable in other settings too, like industrial control rooms.
“ELSA, capture the surgery and observe the details.”
ELSA can also observe everything going on in the room and record the procedure, issue warnings and alerts in case of smoke or moisture, or if temperature rises too high or low, or provide advice to staff about next steps to take in the procedure.
Exciting times ahead
ELSA is set to revolutionize the way of working in ORs, says Bruce: “The OR display hasn’t really changed technically for decades. It has always been used for displaying images. ELSA shifts the paradigm. Surgeons can talk to the platform, share surgical challenges with colleagues, and ask complex questions. ELSA replies back, answers questions, plays music, records what’s happening, and provides useful advice. In this way, ELSA is sure to raise productivity, as well as health outcomes. What’s more, this type of Brilliant Assistant could be just as handy in industrial environments or control centers.”
As a big Star Trek fan, Bruce is excited to help shape the future that Star Trek imagined: “Technology and AI will help us solve hard problems, not in the least in the field of healthcare. It’s a privilege to be able to create these innovative new healthcare devices.”
About Bruce Kennedy
• Founder, CTO and CEO of SoftAcuity, key technology partner of Barco in the development of ELSA
• 30+ years’ experience in med-tech (Synergy, Arthrex…)
• Passionate about partnerships and how people will interact with machines
Bruce’s advice
"Partnership is an overblown word but it’s the secret to any good business and project success. Treat your partners well, work closely together, literally, and you can achieve amazing results.”
