Johnson & Johnson MedTech has announced the advancement of its Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery, an initiative aimed at accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to improve surgical care. The company revealed that Mayo Clinic and QAS.AI are the first recipients of the Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery QuickFire Challenge. Both organizations will receive funding, expert mentorship, and access to computing tools to support their innovations.
The Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery was launched in June 2025 and is part of Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s broader Polyphonic Digital Ecosystem. This effort is supported by partners such as NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The goal is to foster open innovation and provide secure integration of AI solutions into operating rooms worldwide.
“The Polyphonic AI Fund is about a global community rallying around the potential of AI to transform surgery,” said Shan Jegatheeswaran, SVP, Global Head of Digital, MedTech, Johnson & Johnson. “The passionate response we received in the first QuickFire Challenge reflects the growing excitement around surgical AI. We can now build on this response through the Polyphonic AI Fund to support an open developer community and create more opportunity to advance promising projects.”
The initial phase of the fund included an open call for submissions through the QuickFire Challenge program. The call attracted participants from 29 countries, including academics, researchers, startups, developers, and larger companies. Projects addressed areas such as perioperative decision-making, surgical efficiency, data management and governance. Many proposals focused on using multimodal AI—integrating video, imaging, audio, and clinical data—to enhance precision in surgery.
Mayo Clinic was selected for developing a computer vision model aimed at detecting surgical site infections and various post-operative wound complications across different specialties. QAS.AI is working on real-time decision support tools that analyze intra-operative vascular imaging data to assist clinicians during vascular procedures.
A second round of applications for the QuickFire Challenge will begin in October. All first-round applicants are invited to join a network focused on advancing surgical AI innovations. This network will have access to additional programming, mentorship opportunities, and professional connections.
Currently, early access to the Polyphonic ecosystem is limited to select hospitals. More information can be found at https://thenext.jnjmedtech.com/digital.
Johnson & Johnson MedTech has been involved in advancing surgical care technologies for over a century with offerings spanning wound closure products, hemostats, stapling devices, robotics and digital solutions targeting conditions such as metabolic diseases and cancer.
More details about Johnson & Johnson’s work in medical technology can be accessed at https://thenext.jnjmedtech.com.
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