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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. More people will require surgery this year than ever before. And next year, that number will rise again. By 2030, more than 313 million surgical procedures will done annually. This is a demand the current healthcare system cant keep up with. The result will be longer wait times, more complications, and a system stretched far beyond its limits. For decades, surgical innovation has been defined by better tools, stronger materials, and finer instruments, including hardware designed to improve human hands. But true transformation doesnt come from refining scalpels and sutures; it comes from giving surgeons the right information at the right time, through the worlds most intelligent dataset. This is where AI is rewriting the playbook. Not by replacing human expertise, but by amplifying it and by turning intuition into insight, experience into data, and uncertainty into precision. The rise of intelligent surgery Even the most skilled surgeon is limited by human perception. AI is placing intelligence at the center of the operating room, creating a data-driven surgical environment that continuously adapts and enhances precision in real time. Technologies like light field imaging and advanced sensor suites are eliminating blind spots by creating real-time 3D reconstructions of the surgical field with unprecedented depth and clarity. AI guidance continuously adapts during a procedure, giving the surgeon a live surgical roadmap that helps them optimize their every move. AI isnt just showing better images. Its learning. It’s refining implant placement with sub-millimeter precision and continuously optimizing surgical workflows. The result? Reduced operating times, fewer complications, and a consistency level in patient outcomes once thought impossible. AI as the ultimate surgical partner Surgical expertise has always been a mix of experience, intuition, and technique, but even the most skilled hands rely on intraoperative estimations. AI can reduce that guesswork by integrating computational modeling of anatomical structures, shrinking uncertainty to improve surgical precision. AI is improving surgical decision making by giving surgeons clearer insights before and during procedures. It can help plan the best approach, decrease guesswork in the operating room, and lead to more consistent, predictable patient results. In one recent study (RF145), an AI tool was able to measure spinal alignment during surgery more accurately than surgeons. It provided real-time feedback before and after a correction, helping the surgical team see exactly how much alignment had changed and whether additional adjustments were needed. This kind of support can lead to safer surgeries and better patient outcomes. Improve patient safety and outcomes For patients, the success of AI isnt just in better, more informed surgeriesits also in better, more informed recoveries. Predictive analytics flag potential complications before they become problems, enabling proactive interventions and improved care. The numbers tell the story: A deep learning model predicted post-operative complications with 70% accuracy, surpassing traditional clinical risk models and enabling earlier interventions to improve patient safety. Similarly, predictive models have successfully forecasted 30-day hospital readmissions, strongly indicating whether a patient is likely to be readmitted or not. The techmed shift For decades, medtech has been defined by hardware: selling instruments, implants, and surgical devices as products. While these tools have advanced, the underlying approach has been transactional, focused on selling physical components rather than evolving surgical intelligence. Techmed is changing this paradigm. Instead of treating surgery as a series of isolated procedures, AI-driven platforms are creating data rivers, or continuous streams of surgical data that refine precision, optimize workflows, and improve decision making over time. Each procedure informs the next, driving exponential improvements in efficiency, safety, and patient outcomes. This mirrors the evolution of modern technology companies. Rather than one-time sales of surgical tools, techmed is building intelligent, learning-based systems that deliver ongoing value, just as cloud computing and AI-driven platforms have transformed other industries. By integrating data intelligence into surgery, techmed is creating a new foundation for precision, adaptability, and continuous improvement. AIs role in the future of surgery We are at an inflection point. AI is the catalyst reshaping whats possible in surgical care. It is ensuring that every patient, everywhere, benefits from the collective intelligence of thousands of surgeries before them. AI isnt replacing surgeons. Its making them unstoppable. The question isnt whether AI will transform surgery. It already has. The real challenge is whether we will fully harness its potential to ensure precision, efficiency, and better outcomes for all. The revolution isnt coming. Its already here. Gabriel Jones is cofounder and CEO of Proprio.
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E-Commerce
A year ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) put a limit on how much credit card companies could charge consumers for late payments. On Tuesday, the Trump administration quashed that limit, opening the door for financial institutions to once again gouge late-paying customers. The Biden-era rule capped late fees at $8, substantially less than what many credit card companies used to charge. But in a federal court filing in Texas, Trump’s CFPB asked a judge to terminate the rule, saying it had changed its mind and now agreed with banking groups that the rule was illegal. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman (a Trump appointee during his first term) agreed to the request Tuesday afternoon. Pittman had previously blocked the rule from being implemented, saying it violated the 2009 Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act, which regulated excessive fees, but allowed card companies to impose “penalty” fees for late payments. The decision to do away with the late-payment fee cap is a further dismantling of Biden’s initiatives. Trump has been vocal about wanting to disband the CFPB altogether, but judges have so far blocked him from doing so, saying he could lay off workers but not eliminate the agency. Initial opposition to the rule came from a coalition of six business and banking groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Bankers Association. Opponents of the rule celebrated the judge’s ruling. We welcome todays court decision vacating the CFPBs credit card late-fee rule,” the groups said in a joint statement. “This is a win for consumers and common sense.” Under the CARD Act, credit card companies are allowed to charge a maximum fee of $41 for a missed payment, even if the cardholder is only late by a few hours. The Biden-era CFPB had argued there was no evidence that those fees deterred future late payments. Worse, it said, the fees were often accompanied by other penalties, such as loss of grace periods, interest due, and drops in credit scores. Consumer Reports, at the time the cap was enacted, estimated late fees cost Americans more than $14 billion per year. A 2022 report from the CFPB found that 18 of the largest 20 credit card companies were charging the maximum $41 fee, while smaller banks and credit unions were more likely to charge $25 or less. Under Biden, the CFPB estimated the cap could save Americans $9 billion per year. More fees are returning The court ruling comes as another “junk fee” consumer protection seems likely to fall. The House and Senate have both previously voted to repeal the CFPB’s limits on excessive bank-overdraft fees as well. Consumer Reports estimates consumers will lose $5 billion in annual savings with that cap gone. Repealing the CFPBs limits on overdraft fees gives big banks the green light to rip off their customers with excessive charges that far exceed the cost of covering the transaction, said Chuck Bell, advocacy program director at Consumer Reports, last week when the House voted to repeal the limit. “Banks will be able to continue penalizing customers with steep fees even though most overdrafts are for small amounts that are repaid within a few days.” Overdraft fees fall most heavily on consumers with low- and moderate-income levels as well as have an outsize impact on people of color, according to Consumer Reports. Black consumers are 69% more likely than white consumers to live in a household that is charged at least one overdraft or insufficient-funds fee per year. Hispanics are 60% more likely to face the fees.
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E-Commerce
A strong solar storm headed to Earth could produce colorful aurora displays across more U.S. states than usual Tuesday night. The sun earlier this week burped out huge bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections, leading space weather forecasters to issue a geomagnetic storm watch. Northern lights were forecast in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Parts of northern Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania may also get a view. The strength of the light show will depend on how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the solar bursts, said Shawn Dahl at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Heres what to know about auroras and how to spot them. What are northern lights? The sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making the light displays more common and widespread. Colorful northern lights have decorated night skies in unexpected places and space weather experts say there are more auroras still to come. This is going to kind of continue off and on throughout the year, Dahl said. Last spring, the strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades slammed Earth, producing light displays across the Northern Hemisphere. And last fall, a powerful solar storm dazzled skygazers far from the Arctic Circle when dancing lights appeared in unexpected places including Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City. Aurora displays known as the northern and southern lights are commonly visible near the poles, where charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s atmosphere. Skygazers are spotting the lights deeper into the United States and Europe because the sun is going through a major facelift. Every 11 years, its poles swap places, causing magnetic twists and tangles along the way. Severe storms are capable of scrambling radio and GPS communications. The suns active spurt is expected to last at least through the end of this year, though when solar activity will peak wont be known until months after the fact, according to NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What do solar storms do? Solar storms can bring more than colorful lights to Earth. When fast-moving particles and plasma slam into Earths magnetic field, they can temporarily disrupt the power grid. Space weather can also interfere with air traffic control radio and satellites in orbit. In 1859, a severe solar storm triggered auroras as far south as Hawaii and caught telegraph lines on fire in a rare event. And a 1972 solar storm may have detonated magnetic U.S. sea mines off the coast of Vietnam. Space weather experts arent able to predict a solar storm months in advance. Instead, they alert relevant parties to prepare in the days before a solar outburst hits Earth. How to see auroras Northern lights forecasts can be found on NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center website or an aurora forecasting app. Consider aurora-watching in a quiet, dark area away from city lights. NASA’s Kelly Korreck recommended skygazing from a local or national park. And check the weather forecast because clouds can cover up the spectacle entirely. Taking a picture with a smartphone camera may also reveal hints of the aurora that arent visible to the naked eye. Enjoy it, said Korreck. Its this great show … from the sun to you. Adithi Ramakrishnan, AP science writer The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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E-Commerce
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