King’s Global Engagement Partnership Fund award for new surgical AI collaboration in Nigeria

Congratulations to Tom Vercauteren and Oluwatosin Olatunde Alabi, who have been awarded a King’s College London Global Engagement Partnership Fund grant for a new collaboration with Adewale Adisa, Professor of Surgery at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

This project will establish a pilot open dataset of laparoscopic cholecystectomy videos from Nigeria, with a focus on surgical safety and scene understanding. The pilot will also lay the groundwork for a long-term joint research programme in surgical AI in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“This collaboration focuses on building a comprehensive understanding of surgical scenes from the beginning of an operation through to its completion. By developing richer, panoptic representations of real surgical workflows, we aim to support safer decision-making and surgeon training. Working closely with clinicians in Nigeria ensures that the work remains grounded in real practice and clinically meaningful.”
Oluwatosin Alabi

“This project provides an important opportunity to strengthen surgical training by combining established clinical practice with modern data-driven approaches. By contributing local expertise and real operative cases, we aim to reinforce safety-focused principles in both research and surgical education, while also showcasing high-quality surgical practice from West Africa within the global research community.”
Prof Adewale Adisa