When Benjamin Ma, MD, looks at the future of orthopedics, he doesn’t see AI replacing the surgeon. Far from it; he sees the ultimate goal of AI in orthopedics as making the physician “care smarter.”.
“We’re pretty fortunate being in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area,” said Dr. Ma, chair of orthopaedic surgery at the University of California San Francisco. “We interact with a lot of leaders in tech who come to us with new ideas. As clinicians, we need to embrace those changes because they can make us better — better at recognizing patterns, understanding subtleties and making decisions faster.”
AI, he said, could soon help surgeons anticipate problems before a patient even walks in the door.
“AI could eventually prepare a snapshot of the patient before we even enter the room — summarizing their history, flagging patterns and even offering recommendations,” he said. “It might suggest, ‘Consider an internal issue here,’ or direct you toward what matters most.”
Experience has always been a cornerstone of surgical skill, but Dr. Ma believes large data systems can now extend that experience across generations.
“If one surgeon has done 10,000 surgeries, that’s experience,” he said. “Imagine if I put 10,000 brains together and try to learn from those 10,000 brains. The database becomes much more powerful.”
That, he said, is the promise of AI: turning collective experience into smarter, more consistent care.
“The amount of data we capture on our patients and ourselves right now is enormous,” Dr. Ma said. “Every 70 minutes, the amount of data doubles for each individual.” With real-time monitoring through devices like watches and rings, he added, “We may be able to correct the problem before it happens.”
At UCSF, that data-driven mindset has reshaped how the department approaches musculoskeletal care. When Dr. Ma joined the program 23 years ago, there was one nonsurgical faculty member and 22 surgeons. Today, 35% of UCSF’s 110 faculty members specialize in nonoperative care — a shift he said reflects how the field is evolving.
“Musculoskeletal care isn’t all about surgery,” he said. “A lot can be done nonsurgically to manage patients or prepare them so that when the surgery happens, they have a better outcome.”
For Dr. Ma, surgery is only one chapter in the story of recovery. The focus now, he said, must be on prevention, preparation and performance.
“Our job is to really try to get athletes to avoid having surgery,” he said. “And if they do, to help them come back as quickly as possible.”
Even as technology accelerates, economic realities are forcing hard choices. Dr. Ma said reimbursement cuts, implant cost inflation and the nation’s fee-for-service model often stifle innovation.
“The system is broken in the sense that it rewards doing more procedures rather than keeping people healthy,” he said. “In healthcare, new technology usually costs more, not less, which is the opposite of every other industry. That makes it hard to bring innovation in.”
UCSF has responded by scrutinizing the economics of each new device or implant.
“Just because something is newer doesn’t mean you can charge more,” Dr. Ma said. “The days of ‘better equals more expensive’ can’t continue — it’s not sustainable.”
He sees a similar tension in workforce challenges. Financial strain, cost of living and burnout are ongoing pressures, but Dr. Ma said UCSF has kept people engaged by staying rooted in its mission.
“We’re very clear about why we’re in this business,” he said. “If we remind people why we’re doing this and recognize them when they do it well, that builds loyalty and teamwork.”
Looking ahead, Dr. Ma said the next breakthroughs may come not from robotics or software, but from biology.
“The biggest innovation is happening at the cellular level,” he said. “At some point, we’ll be able to tell cells what to do — maybe even speed them up to fix problems quicker.”
He compared it to something out of science fiction.
“It sounds like ‘Star Trek,’ where someone gets hurt, a scanner flashes, and they’re healed in hours,” he said. “It feels far-fetched, but we’re not that far away.”
For Dr. Ma, the goal is simple: use data and innovation to make care more efficient, more preventive — and more human.
“AI and data give us leverage,” he said. “But the goal isn’t to make us faster. It’s to make care smarter.”
