Gauss Surgical of Los Altos, founded by Siddarth Satish ’06, was just selected as a winner of the Apple Design Award at the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). The Apple Design Award reflects the best in design, innovation and technology on Apple’s platforms and, Satish noted, “we are extremely humbled and honored to be recognized for this accomplishment.”

The award was for Triton Sponge, an innovative iPad app used in medical operating rooms to quickly calculate and keep track of blood loss collected by surgical sponges and suction canisters. The app uses iOS technologies including Core Image and camera Depth Map to detect sponges, as well as Core ML and machine learning to perform complex blood loss calculations to improve patient care.

Satish noted, “We are well aware that we share this award with all of our collaborators that make the full functioning of our product possible. That starts with the members of our world-class technical team and extends to our amazing users – our hospital partners! We have thousands of nurses and physicians who entrust Gauss to help improve the essential care they give to their patients.”

The company has grown rapidly in the last 18 months and the app is now in use in 40 hospitals, but Satish has not lost sight of the real beneficiaries of the company’s technology. “We know that behind every sponge scanned there is a patient who needs the best that Gauss can offer, he said. “Usually, our patients never know that Triton is there supporting their clinical team, but it’s these patients for whom we dedicate our time and attention to make our product great.”

Here is a link to the on-stage award presentation and live demo (starting at minute 39:10).

Satish also was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year in the health care category. Forbes noted, “Using the iPad’s built-in camera and computer vision algorithms, Siddarth Satish has developed an FDA-cleared app to monitor blood loss in the OR. It’s been used for thousands of patients to make childbirth safer. The company has raised $24.6 million.”