AI in Medtech: How Olympus Is Doing the Math and Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared
If there’s one takeaway for artificial intelligence (AI) naysayers, it’s this: “AI is math.” According to Olympus’ Chief Digital Officer, Smart Connected Care Slawek Kierner, “We shouldn’t be scared.” Kierner’s fearlessness draws from a 35-year career spanning Microsoft, Humana, and Intuitive Surgical. His vision of AI in healthcare as the “quintuple aim1” is tempered by Director of Marketing GI Digital Solutions Neviana Terzieva, whose role is to help introduce the U.S. medtech world to the Olympus’ OLYSENSETM Platform, part of the Olympus® Intelligent Endoscopy Ecosystem (IEE). Drawing from her experience in health IT, she recalls clinician hesitancy toward the adoption of electronic health records and related technology. Both Kierner and Terzieva are confident that the field of GI endoscopy is ripe for IEE adoption. Their uniquely varied yet complementary experiences and perspectives make for an engaging episode of this DeviceTalks’ OlympusTalks podcast.
The Theory and Vision
Kierner expanded on how AI in general, and Olympus IEE in particular, could play a role in the “quintuple aim,” a healthcare framework that builds on the 2008 “triple aim2” developed by health policy stakeholders concerned with improving patient experience and population health, along with controlling costs.
The quintuple aim includes five key goals:1,2
- Improved patient experience
- Improved population health
- Reduced costs
- Improved clinician work life
- Advanced health equity
Hear Kierner expand on the potential of the OLYSENSE Platform, and how technology designed to support polyp detection may align with the above goals.
‘Blended Intelligence’ in Endoscopy
Reticence of AI adoption in healthcare may come down to semantics. For example, Kierner prefers the term “augmented” over “artificial” to allay clinician adoption fears.
“I see great potential in reaching something that I call “blended intelligence,” added Terzieva. “There are naturally things in healthcare that a machine will never be able to replace,” such as the human touch and a clinician’s “contextual ability to care for a patient,” she acknowledged. However, automation of any type, AI or otherwise, “can complement human intelligence [by assisting on] the edges of decision making and serve up information for the healthcare professional to confirm,” she said.
Potential of Olympus® IEE
Terzieva sees this potential in the OLYSENSE platform, which leverages cloud-based technology to deliver solutions at the point of care. The OLYSENSE platform includes the CADDIE™ device, which was developed with a dataset enriched with clinically significant lesions.3 This purposeful design is at the core of CADDIE software, which aids in the detection of high-risk and hard-to-detect lesions, such as large flat polyps and sessile serrated lesions.4
The OLYSENSE Platform is part of the EVIS X1TM endoscopy ecosystem of intelligent endoscopy solutions, featuring imaging technology for early detection and treatment of GI disorders, and EZ1500 series endoscopes with Extended Depth of Field (EDOFTM) technology. “This scope [is designed to] improve clarity and precision, and it helps physicians … see the full field of view” with minimal focal adjustment,5 explained Kierner. “The core message is that we are not just executing AI on one particular kind of [product],” clarified Kierner. “We are launching an … integrated ecosystem of capabilities for our customers.”
““The core message is that we are not just executing AI on one particular kind of [product],” clarified Kierner. “We are launching an … integrated ecosystem of capabilities for our customers.”
Increased Screening Demands
Smart tools like these couldn’t come at a better time, according to Terzieva, who referenced GI society recommendations to lower the colorectal cancer (CRC) screening age to 45 from 50 for people at average CRC risk.6 The guidelines were first amended by the American Cancer Society (ACS), following rising CRC rates in younger people, and ACS research continues to support this trend.7
It also creates the perfect storm. “You have a higher prevalence of a disease, conjoined with the fact that the healthcare system is already overwhelmed,” Terzieva stated. “With all the technology that Olympus and other vendors are providing globally for the colorectal cancer screening initiative, still the majority of detection happens between [a pair] of eyes and a monitor.”
Another goal is to help providers meet adjusted quality metrics issued by ASGE and ACG, Terzieva said. “They raised the benchmark from 25% to 35%” as an acceptable adenoma detection rate for screening colonoscopies, she explained. A 6% sessile serrated lesion detection rate was also introduced as a quality indicator.8
Listen to Terzieva discuss early cloud-based technology adoption hurdles in healthcare, and the potential of achieving efficiencies with today’s applications.
‘A Techno Optimist’
While Terzieva sees opportunities to improve colonoscopy quality metrics, she is also sensitive to physicians’ technology adoption concerns. “I think physicians are duly protective of any technology that enters their direct patient care space,” she observed. Experience has shown her that “there’s a certain sentiment that the technology needs to prove itself over time and it needs to be nonintrusive,” she added, something she and her colleagues at Olympus can appreciate.
“We’re lucky to be in a position to have such an impact. It’s rare when a single company has such a wide reach, and a deliberate introduction of technology” designed to benefit both patients and physicians, said Terzieva. “We’re on the precipice – not only in healthcare but in general – of what AI can bring to us in our professional and personal lives.” Terzieva is not scared. “I’m a techno optimist for life.”
The CADDIE™ device is not intended to replace a full patient evaluation, nor is it intended to be relied upon to make a primary interpretation of endoscopic procedures, medical diagnosis, or recommendations of treatment/course of action for patients. The CADDIE computer-assisted detection device is limited for use with standard white-light endoscopy imaging only.
The EVIS X1™ endoscopy system is not designed for cardiac applications. Other combinations of equipment may cause ventricular fibrillation or seriously affect the cardiac function of the patient. Improper use of endoscopes may result in patient injury, infection, bleeding, and/or perforation. Complete indications, contraindications, warnings, and cautions are available in the Instructions for Use (IFU).
References
- Nundy S, Cooper LA, Mate KS. The Quintuple Aim for Health Care Improvement: A New Imperative to Advance Health Equity. JAMA. 2022;327(6):521–522. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.25181
- Ihi.org. Triple Aim. https://www.ihi.org/library/topics/triple-aim. Accessed September 15, 2025.
- Data on file with Odin Medical Ltd., OD-007599-BT — ODIN-CADDIE-CER-FDA-BT Polyp Detection Bench Testing Report V1.4.13. Data is based on direct comparisons between use and non-use of CADDIE™ device.
- Odin Medical Ltd., EAGLE Trial – NCT05730192. Data not peer-reviewed/published at time of document creation.
- Data on file with Olympus (DC00493386, DC00433276, DC00510434 and DC00567392).
- Shaukat A, Kahi CJ, Burke CA, Rabeneck L, Sauer BG, Rex DK. ACG Clinical Guidelines: Colorectal Cancer Screening 2021. Am J Gastroenterol. 2021 Mar 1;116(3):458-479.
- Cancer.org. https://pressroom.cancer.org/early-diagnosis-surge-for-CRC#:~:text=The%20recommended%20age%20to%20begin,Force%20(USPSTF)%20in%202021. Published August 24, 2025. Accessed September 15, 2025.
- ASGE.org. ASGE and ACG Release Updated Quality Indicators for Colonoscopy. Accessed August 29, 2025.
