Can AI fix the operating room? This startup thinks so

There is a lot of hype around AI and robots in healthcare, but the problem currently costing hospitals money is operating room coordination. Two to four hours of operating room time are lost each day, not because of the surgeries themselves, but because of everything that happens between manual planning and coordination chaos, right down to guesswork about room rotation.

Today on TechCrunch Equity podcast, we feature a conversation that Russell Brandom, editor-in-chief of TechCrunch AI, had with Conor McGinn, co-founder and CEO of Akara, the startup that recently landed a spot on The best inventions of the time in 2025 and built what is essentially air traffic control for hospitals using thermal sensors and AI.

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