AATS Annual Meeting 2026

AI for Surgeons: The Practical Toolkit

Everything you need to know about AI in 90 minutes

Saturday, May 2, 2026
7:30 - 9:00 AM CT
Chicago, IL
Hands-On Learning

Bring your laptop and try AI tools live during the session. Access our interactive playgrounds with pre-configured API keys.

Practical Demonstrations

See real-world applications for research, clinical practice, and academic surgery. No theory-only lectures.

Interactive Discussion

Bring your research problems and workflow challenges. We'll match them to AI tools and test solutions together.

90-Minute Workshop Agenda
A condensed, high-impact introduction to AI for cardiothoracic surgeons
7:30 - 7:40

Welcome & AI Landscape Overview

Quick introduction to generative AI, LLMs, and why they matter for surgery now

10 minutes
7:40 - 8:00

Demo: Prompt Engineering for Research

Live demonstration of LLM comparison playground. See GPT-5.x, Anthropic Claude, and Gemini side-by-side for literature review, grant writing, and data analysis prompts.

20 minutesInteractive
8:00 - 8:20

Demo: RAG for Clinical Knowledge

How to build a knowledge base from your surgical notes, radiology reports, or research papers. Live demo of retrieval-augmented generation.

20 minutesHands-on
8:20 - 8:40

Demo: Vision Models for Medical Imaging

Using multimodal AI to interpret CT scans, X-rays, and surgical images. Practical applications for case presentations and teaching.

20 minutesLive Demo
8:40 - 8:55

Open Q&A: Your Research Problems

Bring your specific challenges. We'll match them to AI tools and test solutions using the playgrounds. Examples: automating data extraction, analyzing patient cohorts, generating figures.

15 minutesDiscussion
8:55 - 9:00

Next Steps

Access to self-paced learning materials, playground exercises, and information about future asynchronous / online AI workshops (coming soon).

5 minutes
What You'll Learn
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How to write effective prompts for research and clinical tasks

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Comparing LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini) for different use cases

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Building knowledge bases from your own documents (RAG)

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Using vision models to analyze medical images

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Automating repetitive research and clinical workflows

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Practical tools you can use immediately after the session

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Ethical considerations and limitations of AI in surgery

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How to evaluate AI tools for your specific needs

Try the Playgrounds Now
Get a head start by exploring our interactive AI playgrounds before the workshop