Time has included Surgical Safety Technologies’ OR Black Box on its list of the Best Inventions of 2019. 

Modelled after an airplane’s black box, the device monitors surgeries by recording audio, video and medical data from electronic surgical instruments, all with an eye to improving safety in the operating room. 

Surgical Safety Technologies, was founded in Toronto by Dr. Teodor Grantcharov, a general surgeon. Vector Faculty Member Frank Rudzicz serves as its director of AI. 

Time’s annual list is compiled through recommendations from writers and editors as well as through on online application. Nominees were evaluated on their “originality, creativity, influence, ambition and effectiveness.” The list ranges from recyclable sneakers to heated razors.  

In including OR Black Box on their list, Time writer Jeffrey Kluger noted, “In a surgical theater that still relies on paper checklists, the Black Box is a huge step forward.”