Oct 30, 2025 How well do we really understand the body? For decades, surgeons have relied on static scans and flat 2D models to plan procedures. Gilly Yildirim believes it’s time to expand our view to more dimensions. As founder and CEO of Vent Creativity, he is bringing together point clouds, digital twins, and physics-based AI to capture movement with a level of precision that static imaging cannot match. In conversation with Jenny Chen, Yildirim describes how his team built a platform that sees the body not as a collection of bones, but as a dynamic system of forces and interactions. Their software models the physics of ligaments, cartilage, and bone to predict how a patient’s knee will behave before surgery even begins. The goal is to give surgeons a clearer and reliable picture of what they’re working with.
⚠️ Disclaimer:
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The views expressed do not constitute engineering, medical, or financial advice. The technologies and procedures discussed may not be commercially available or suitable for every case. Always consult with a qualified professional.
About Our Guest
Gilly Yildirim is a biomedical engineer, inventor, and operations leader with 20 years of medical device industry and scientific research experience, and is currently the Founder and CEO of Vent Creativity Corporation, an AI-based digital twin surgical planning and decision-making software serving the orthopaedics and healthcare community. Yildirim started his career in industrial robotic automation and later translated this expertise to human biomechanics, design, testing, and regulatory filing of medical devices. He has advised multi-billion-dollar medical device companies on portfolio strategy, M&A decisions, and product development for multiple $5MM+ NPV projects. Yildirim has played a key role in regulatory testing and filing for 13 Class II, 1 IDE, and 1 IND FDA products. He has over 25 peer-reviewed publications in the orthopaedic device field and holds 12 granted patents in big-data-driven surgery, additive manufacturing, and robotic surgery. Yildirim earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from NJIT, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, and an MBA from Columbia University.
Key Takeaways
- Yildirim emphasizes that success in surgical innovation requires communication as much as technical expertise. Engineers and surgeons often “speak different languages,” and bridging that gap is what transforms good technology into a usable clinical tool.
- Many startups focus on selling technology, but Yildirim argues that real progress depends on earning trust especially from veteran surgeons who rely on decades of experience.
- Vent Creativity’s platform centers around Minerva, an adaptive AI engine that powers Hermes, a digital knee planning tool, and inVENT, a cloud service for interactive 3D surgical planning. The Hermes Knee Platform recently received FDA clearance, marking a significant step toward clinical adoption.
- Their software is designed to work across imaging types and implant systems, aiming to be agnostic to hospital resources and surgical preferences.
- The company’s intraoperative vision is an AR-guided experience with no external trackers or physical tensioners. Surgeons will simply wear smart glasses, issue voice commands, and receive real-time guidance that visualizes soft tissue and ligament dynamics during a procedure.
- Yildirim and his team have tested their technology at hospitals including Orlando Health, the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), and the Anderson Orthopaedic Clinic, with upcoming collaborations at Stanford Medicine and international research sites.
Future of Digital Twins in Medicine
- Gilly Yildirim envisions a future where digital twins go far beyond orthopedics, expanding into cardiology, oncology, hernia repair, and even full-body MRI-based preventive care.
- His long-term goal is to create a digital “marketplace” for healthcare, similar to an Amazon model where clinicians can access tailored computational tools for their specialty.
- He also notes that simulation models average, while digital twins model individuals. A digital twin captures the unique anatomical and biomechanical data of each patient to generate precise surgical insights.
- Yildirim is candid about the ethical and technical challenges of scaling AI. He stresses that developers must actively mitigate algorithmic bias before deployment to ensure that digital twin systems benefit diverse populations and body types across global markets.
- As AI computation demands grow, sustainable energy (including fusion, fission, and geothermal technologies) will be essential to keeping medical innovation scalable and equitable.
Advice for Students and Founders
- Don’t chase trends. The technologies everyone is talking about now, AI, robotics, or AR, may not be the next frontier when you graduate. Instead, look for what’s quietly missing and build toward that.
- Study game theory and operations research to understand how decisions ripple through complex systems.Yildirim credits these disciplines for shaping his ability to navigate both engineering and business strategy.
- Prepare for every scenario. Yildirim calls himself “not pessimistic, just prepared,” a mindset that has allowed him to anticipate obstacles and respond strategically.
- Technical expertise means little without communication. Being able to explain your technology clearly to surgeons, investors, and regulators is what turns invention into impact.
Resources & Follow-up
🔗Concepts
Point Cloud
A point cloud is simply a big collection of tiny dots (called points) in 3D space. Each point has x, y, and z coordinates, which describe its exact position, much like 3D pixels or a voxel. Here’s a simple way to imagine it: If you scan an object or a room with a 3D scanner or LiDAR, the scanner measures millions of points on all the visible surfaces. When you look at all those points together, they form a rough shape of the object or environment—just without the solid “skin.” So, a point cloud = a 3D map made of dots. It’s often used as the starting point for creating 3D models in fields such as 3D printing, architecture, autonomous vehicles, and medical imaging.
Game Theory
Game theory is the study of how individuals or organizations make decisions when their choices interact and influence one another. It’s essentially the science of strategy — helping us understand competition, cooperation, and negotiation. Whether it’s companies setting prices, politicians forming alliances, or animals competing for resources, game theory models these interactions as “games” with players, choices, and outcomes. Each player aims to maximize their benefit while anticipating how others will act. The famous Prisoner’s Dilemma, for example, illustrates how two individuals might fail to cooperate even when it’s in their best interest, revealing how trust and incentives influence behavior. To explore game theory without heavy math, there are many popular books available on this subject, including The Art of Strategy, which serves as a great starting point, offering numerous real-world examples from business, politics, and daily life. Understanding Game Theory is a better way to understand human behavior, competition, and decision-making everywhere.
🔗Vent Creativity & Company Resources
- Vent Creativity Official Website
- Journey to FDA Clearance – J&J Innovation Blog
- Vent Creativity on LinkedIn
- AI-Powered Surgical Planning Overview – MedicalExpo
🔗Technology & Product News
🔗Clinical Partners & Research Institutions
- Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute
- Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)
- Stanford HealthCare Orthopaedics
- AdventHealth Orthopedic Research Institute
- Orthopedic Driven Imaging
🔗Academic & Sector Insights
- Digital Twins in Orthopaedics – Review Article
- Nature Digital Medicine – Personalized Surgery via Digital Twins
- Musculoskeletal Digital Twin Systems – PubMed
- Robotics and AI-Assisted Surgery in Healthcare
- AI Surgical Planning Industry Report – iData Research
🔗AI & Medical Imaging Innovations
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