Ambient AI Transforming Operating Room Utilization Reducing Friction and Boosting Efficiency with David Schummers Apella TRANSCRIPT
Release Date: 07/22/2026
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info_outlineDavid Schummers, CEO of Apella, uses ambient AI technology, primarily audio- and video-based computer vision, to collect accurate operational data in real time to improve hospital management. With a key emphasis on operating room scheduling and resource management, this solution replaces manually entered data, which is often inaccurate and entered into the system late. The Apella platform helps hospitals optimize existing OR capacity and efficiency, reduces errors and documentation burden on nurses, provides accurate live operational information, and delivers economic benefits.
David explains, "Apella is focused on using modern technologies to improve the operations of the hospital. If you consider the contribution of hospital operations to our overall healthcare spending, it's about a third of every dollar spent in healthcare is spent on running hospitals, which is a pretty significant contribution. And depending where you were, unfortunately, a lot of that expense is wasted."
"So Apella has built a system for ambient detection that is able to improve the throughput of hospitals and improve the efficiency of hospitals. So that's what we're focused on. The product that we're working on right now is focused on the operating room, which is the largest revenue and expense driver of those health systems that we just talked about."
"So operating rooms are scheduled and managed using data that is entered into the electronic health record. And so the electronic health record was designed to capture all of the patient records and make them available and interoperable. It really wasn't designed as an operational system. As a result, the captured data is limited in several ways. The first way is that it is not always accurate because it's manually entered. What we've found is that about 5% of manually entered data points relate to the scheduling of surgeries and other procedures."
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