Wenhao Dong
Doctoral fellow – Training and Research Institute for Surgical Artificial Intelligence, UGent
Member ORSI Academy
Principal Investigator: prof. Niki Rashidian (MD, PhD)
Research focus
Wenhao’s research is dedicated to advancing surgical training and assessment through the integration of Proficiency-Based Progression (PBP) and artificial intelligence. A central challenge in surgical practice is the lack of objective, real-time evaluation of intraoperative performance, as traditional assessment methods are often subjective, retrospective, and limited in granularity. This gap restricts effective skill development and hinders the ability to link surgical performance with patient outcomes.
To address this, the research focuses on developing an intelligent, PBP-driven evaluation system for pancreatic surgery using advanced computer vision techniques. By defining and modeling specific intraoperative errors and procedural phases, the system aims to automatically and accurately recognize surgical actions from video data. Leveraging state-of-the-art deep learning methods, it extracts rich visual features that capture subtle patterns in surgical workflows, enabling more precise detection of errors and improved phase segmentation compared to conventional approaches.
Building upon these capabilities, the research further establishes quantitative, video-based evaluation metrics that provide objective and fine-grained assessments of surgical performance and procedural progression. These intraoperative indicators are then incorporated into predictive models to estimate postoperative clinical outcomes, creating a direct link between surgical behavior and patient prognosis.
This interdisciplinary approach combines surgical expertise with cutting-edge AI to develop reliable decision-support tools. Ultimately, the goal is to provide surgeons with actionable, data-driven feedback, enhance training efficiency, improve intraoperative decision-making, and contribute to safer, more effective, and standardized surgical care.
Biography
- Master of Engineering in Computer Science at Xi’an Jiaotong University (2022-2025)
- Bachelor of Internet of Things at Xidian University (2018-2022)
Contact & links
- Lab address: Campus UZ Gent, 6B3 (entrance 46), Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent
- TRISAI: Training and Research Institute for Surgical Artificial Intelligence
- Wenhao Dong is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks