Surgical AI Risk Research Volunteer Operating Room, Procedural Care & Patient Safety (Remote)

About the Initiative

The BRITE Institute is expanding a structured AI Safety and Risk Framework initiative focused on identifying, analyzing, and documenting AI failure modes in healthcare and other high-risk environments.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into surgical planning, operative workflows, procedural decision-making, imaging review, robotic-assisted surgery, documentation, perioperative care, and post-operative monitoring, there is an urgent need for contributors who understand the realities of surgical and procedural environments.

This initiative is building a scalable AI safety research and intelligence framework designed to help identify where AI systems may fail across operating rooms, procedure-based specialties, perioperative care, and surgical decision-making.

This work is especially important because AI systems may affect:

• Patient safety
• Surgical planning
• Procedural decision-making
• Intraoperative workflows
• Imaging interpretation
• Robotic-assisted systems
• Anesthesia coordination
• Risk prediction
• Post-operative monitoring
• Documentation and handoffs
• Clinical judgment and human oversight

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to meaningful work at the intersection of:

• Surgery
• Procedural care
• Operating room workflows
• Patient safety
• Perioperative care
• Plastic and reconstructive surgery
• AI/ML
• Clinical operations
• Risk management
• Emerging technology

The project operates through a standardized research workflow and collaborative system.

Volunteer Roles Available

We are seeking contributors from a wide range of surgical, procedural, perioperative, and healthcare backgrounds, including:

• Surgeons
• Surgical residents
• Medical students interested in surgery
• Plastic surgeons
• Reconstructive surgery professionals
• Cosmetic surgery professionals
• Oral and maxillofacial surgery professionals
• Orthopedic surgery professionals
• General surgery professionals
• Neurosurgery professionals
• Cardiothoracic surgery professionals
• OB/GYN surgical professionals
• ENT surgical professionals
• Ophthalmology professionals
• Dermatologic surgery professionals
• Interventional radiology professionals
• Anesthesiology professionals
• CRNAs
• Operating room nurses
• PACU nurses
• Surgical technologists
• Perioperative professionals
• Procedure-based clinicians
• Wound care professionals
• Clinical researchers
• Healthcare operators
• Allied health professionals
• Patient safety professionals
• Quality improvement professionals

This is a fully remote and unpaid volunteer opportunity.

What You Will Do

Contributors may assist with:

• Identifying surgical and procedural AI failure modes
• Evaluating how AI failures may impact patient safety, clinical judgment, procedural planning, and surgical outcomes
• Reviewing real-world surgical, perioperative, and procedure-based deployment scenarios
• Assessing operational realism within operating room and procedural workflows
• Identifying unsafe deployment conditions and surgical edge cases
• Evaluating how AI tools may affect imaging interpretation, risk prediction, documentation, and post-operative monitoring
• Reviewing risks related to robotic-assisted systems, decision support, and human oversight
• Analyzing trust, adoption, overreliance, underuse, and clinician judgment risks
• Supporting publication-oriented research outputs
• Contributing to mitigation strategy development
• Helping ensure AI systems reflect real-world surgical and procedural care environments
• Entering finalized findings into standardized project systems

Special Focus Areas

This role is designed to attract contributors who understand surgical and procedural care environments, including:

Operating Room and Procedural Workflows

• Pre-operative planning
• Surgical checklists
• Intraoperative decision-making
• Team communication
• Procedure sequencing
• Equipment readiness
• Documentation
• Handoffs
• Post-operative monitoring

Surgical Decision Support

• Surgical risk prediction
• Imaging review
• Anatomy assessment
• Treatment planning
• Contraindication review
• Complication prediction
• Patient selection
• Escalation decisions

Plastic, Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery

• Reconstructive planning
• Cosmetic procedure planning
• Facial and body anatomy variation
• Wound healing considerations
• Patient expectation management
• Pre-operative risk screening
• Post-operative complication monitoring
• AI-generated imaging or simulation risks

Robotic-Assisted and AI-Supported Surgery

• Human oversight
• Automation reliance
• Robotic system support
• Procedural navigation
• Real-time recommendations
• System error recognition
• Surgeon control and accountability
• Safety boundaries

Perioperative and Post-Operative Care

• Anesthesia coordination
• Recovery monitoring
• PACU workflows
• Pain management considerations
• Infection risk monitoring
• Complication escalation
• Follow-up care
• Discharge readiness

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are looking for contributors who are:

• Detail-oriented
• Highly organized
• Reliable and responsive
• Able to follow directions and guidance
• Comfortable following structured workflows
• Able to work independently
• Adaptable to evolving research processes
• Comfortable reviewing healthcare-related scenarios
• Able to think critically about surgical safety and procedural risk
• Interested in patient safety and responsible AI deployment
• Capable of producing high-quality work within standardized systems

Strong Candidates Are Comfortable With

• Surgical environments
• Operating room workflows
• Procedural care
• Perioperative systems
• Patient safety risk analysis
• Clinical judgment and escalation
• Documentation accuracy
• Research-intensive work
• Collaborative systems
• Iterative feedback
• Structured templates
• Shared research systems
• Maintaining consistency across standardized workflows

Prior AI experience is helpful but not required.

The strongest candidates will be able to apply their surgical, procedural, perioperative, clinical, or patient safety experience to identify where AI systems may fail in real-world surgical care environments.

Why Surgical & Procedural Experience Matters

AI systems do not only create risk in diagnostics or general clinical workflows. They may also create risk in high-stakes procedural environments where timing, anatomy, judgment, communication, and team coordination directly affect patient safety.

Contributors with surgical, procedural, operating room, plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, anesthesia, perioperative, or post-operative care experience can help identify risks that purely technical reviewers may miss, including:

• How surgical decisions are made before, during, and after procedures?
• How anatomy, patient history, and comorbidities affect procedural risk?
• How surgical teams coordinate in real time?
• How AI recommendations may influence judgment under pressure?
• How robotic-assisted or AI-supported systems may create new safety concerns?
• How documentation, handoffs, and follow-up affect surgical outcomes?
• How trust, usability, and adoption influence surgical team behavior?
• How AI tools may fail across different surgical specialties and patient populations?

This role is especially valuable for people who understand the practical realities of operating rooms, procedural care, and surgical patient safety.

Important Notes

This initiative is fast-moving, systems-oriented, and research intensive.

Contributors should be comfortable with:

• Learning new workflows quickly
• Operating within standardized systems
• Receiving structured feedback
• Contributing consistently within collaborative research environments
• Meeting deadlines
• Using collaborative digital tools and remote workflows
• Maintaining professionalism and accuracy

Remote collaboration may include:

• Slack
• Zoom
• Google Meet
• Google Docs
• Shared spreadsheets
• Research templates
• Structured data entry systems

Because this work may contribute to future publications, policy frameworks, healthcare AI safety guidance, and advanced AI safety initiatives, the following are extremely important:

• Professionalism
• Reliability
• Operational awareness
• Confidentiality
• Attention to detail
• Clear communication
• Consistent follow-through

What You’ll Gain

Volunteers may gain:

• Exposure to emerging AI safety research
• Interdisciplinary surgical care and AI experience
• Publication-oriented collaboration
• Operational and systems-thinking experience
• Experience analyzing operating room, procedural, perioperative, and surgical AI risks
• Experience working alongside technical AI contributors and researchers
• Hands-on exposure to the rapidly growing AI/ML ecosystem impacting healthcare globally
• Opportunities to help shape safer and more clinically grounded AI systems
• Experience contributing to a framework relevant to surgical safety, procedural care, and responsible AI adoption

This is an opportunity to help bridge the gap between real-world surgical practice, procedural care, and the future of AI-driven healthcare systems.

Additional Information

• Estimated commitment: approximately 8–15 hours per week
• Work may include structured research, documentation, and standardized data entry
• This is a merit-based and experience-based volunteer opportunity
• Applicants should be prepared to submit relevant work samples, research examples, writing samples, healthcare experience, surgical experience, procedural experience, perioperative experience, patient safety experience, or related professional background
• Selected candidates may also be asked to complete a short skills-based assessment aligned with the responsibilities outlined in this position description

Remote • Volunteer • Unpaid • Flexible Hours