Dr. Yeshwanth Pulijala (Yesh) is the founder and CEO of Scalpel. In this role he leads a highly motivated team building AI tools to enhance patient safety across the peri-operative pathway. Scalpel provides a clinically validated surgical intelligence platform that uses computer vision to provide real-time insights into clinical workflows – starting with managing surgical instruments. Trained as a dentist, Yesh has over nine years of interdisciplinary experience in healthcare and technology (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Computer Vision). In his doctoral research, he has designed and evaluated one of the first immersive virtual reality training tools for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
Pulijala has spent thousands of hours in operating rooms where he has first-hand experienced several surgeries going wrong – of which, to his surprise, nearly 50% were preventable. That significantly impacted him – sparking his mission to improve current surgical processes and prioritize patient safety. In 2017, he founded Scalpel to make surgery safer.