A new University of Pittsburgh research project aimed at improving surgical outcomes through artificial intelligence has been selected for Moonshot funding from the Laude Institute. The Moonshots program challenges leading AI researchers to address one fundamental question: If you had the resources, how would you use AI to solve humanity’s hardest problems?
The Pitt research team includes Murat Kaynar, MD, MPH; Harikesh Subramanian, MBBS, MS, D.ABA, ABPM-CI; and Senthil Sadhasivam, MD, MPH, MBA, FASA, from the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. They are collaborating with Ryan Shi, PhD, Department of Computer Science, and Shyam Visweswaran, MD, PhD, Department of Biomedical Informatics.
Their project, “Frontline Healthcare Moonshot: The Digital Twin for Transforming Post-Surgical Care and Achieving Best-in-Class Outcomes,” will develop an AI-powered “digital twin” of a surgical patient—a dynamic, personalized model that continuously learns from a patient’s medical data before, during, and after surgery. By integrating information such as medical history, physiologic signals, medications, and recovery progress, the digital twin can help clinicians anticipate complications earlier, better understand individual risk, and support more informed, timely decisions. Ultimately, this approach aims to reduce postoperative complications and mortality while improving recovery and long-term outcomes for surgical patients.
The Moonshot competition received 125 proposals from more than 600 researchers across 47 institutions, including Nobel and Turing laureates. The Pitt team was selected as one of the top 12 proposals and awarded $200,000 in seed funding for a six-month project period. In November 2026, the team will present their results to philanthropic funders as part of the next stage of the program for possible additional funding.