Artificial intelligence in pediatric surgery Present and future

Background Artificial intelligence, automatization and digital transformation increasingly dominate the business models of almost all enterprises. Even in medicine and medical technology, companies also no longer close their minds to this development as the advantages provided by the new ideas and processes in medicine and particularly in compact disciplines, such as pediatric surgery have occasionally been recognized. Objective This article gives a status quo analysis of artificial intelligence in international pediatric surgery with a discussion of future perspectives and suggestions from the authors' perspective. Material and methods Appraisal and discussion of international publications, external expert opinions and personal experiences of the authors. Results A wide spectrum of applications using artificial intelligence in surgery is internationally available. Many of these developments can also be further adapted for use in pediatric surgery. The experience using artificial intelligence for special pediatric surgical indications is currently limited to isolated cases. Conclusion Disciplines such as pediatric surgery cannot disregard the trend towards the application of artificial intelligence in daily practice. In addition to the establishment of current developments, the requirements of pediatric surgery should also be taken into account. These were some of the impulses that led to the founding of the working group on digitalization of the German Association for Pediatric Surgery in September 2019.