While AI and robots in healthcare generate significant buzz, the immediate financial drain on hospitals stems from inefficient operating room management. Each day, hospitals lose between two and four hours of OR time, not due to the surgical procedures themselves, but from issues like manual scheduling, poor coordination, and imprecise room turnover estimates.
This episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast features a discussion between TechCrunch AI Editor Russell Brandom and Conor McGinn, co-founder and CEO of Akara. Akara, a startup recently recognized on Time’s Best Inventions of 2025, is pioneering an AI-driven system using thermal sensors to create an “air traffic control” equivalent for hospital operations.
In the complete episode, you’ll discover:
- Insights into Akara’s strategic shift from developing cleaning robots to ambient sensing technology, and how thermal sensors enable surgical documentation while safeguarding patient privacy
- The story of how successful vetting by the NHS provided McGinn with an unexpected entry point into the U.S. hospital market
- An exploration of the actual impediment to the advancement of medical robotics, revealing that infrastructure, not the robots themselves, is the primary constraint
- The factors contributing to a potential 40% departure of the nursing workforce within the next five years, and the implications for increased automation in healthcare
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