VisionMed adds ophthalmology and neurosurgery advisers to Medical Advisory Board

VisionMed appointed ophthalmologist Omar Shakir and neurosurgeon Omar Choudhri to its Medical Advisory Board as the company pushes EMMA across procedural medicine. The additions deepen VisionMed’s expertise in image-heavy specialties where video and other visual data can be turned into structured clinical and research data.

Why it matters: - VisionMed is adding specialty expertise in two image-rich fields that closely match EMMA’s core use case. - Ophthalmology and neurovascular surgery generate large volumes of visual data that can be used for documentation, analysis, education, quality improvement and research. - The appointments support VisionMed’s effort to expand EMMA beyond a single specialty and into broader procedural medicine.

What happened: - VisionMed announced the appointments of Omar Shakir, MD, MBA, and Omar Choudhri, MD, MHCI, FACS, FAANS, to its Medical Advisory Board on August 27, 2026. - Shakir will advise on ophthalmology and ophthalmic imaging. - Choudhri will advise on cerebrovascular, endovascular and skull-base neurosurgery. - VisionMed develops EMMA®, a video intelligence platform for procedural medicine. - The company is based in Nashville, Tennessee.

The details: - Shakir is the founder of Coastal Eye in Greenwich, Connecticut. - Shakir specializes in cataract and vitreoretinal surgery. - Shakir also serves as a Clinical Instructor at Yale University. - Shakir is a principal investigator on multiple Phase 2, 3 and 4 clinical trials. - Shakir completed an ophthalmology residency at the University of Florida. - Shakir completed a two-year vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at Yale University. - VisionMed said Shakir’s experience across anterior- and posterior-segment ophthalmology will help guide EMMA’s development and evaluation for ophthalmic surgical and diagnostic workflows. - Those workflows include surgical video, ophthalmic imaging, structured documentation, longitudinal analysis, education and clinical research. - Choudhri recently joined the University of Chicago Department of Neurological Surgery. - Choudhri serves there as Director of Innovation. - Choudhri’s clinical focus includes complex neurovascular disease, stroke, cerebrovascular malformations and skull-base tumors. - VisionMed said Choudhri will advise on EMMA’s development and use across neurosurgical and neurointerventional workflows. - Those workflows include procedural documentation, workflow analysis, education, quality improvement and clinical research. - VisionMed said Choudhri’s background in open microsurgery, endovascular procedures, academic neurosurgery and clinical innovation will help guide expansion into complex image- and video-intensive procedural areas. - VisionMed’s Medical Advisory Board provides strategic guidance on product development, clinical validation, workflow integration, physician education and the use of artificial intelligence across procedural medicine. - EMMA is being developed as a procedure-agnostic platform. - VisionMed said EMMA turns procedural video, audio, images and clinical data into structured documentation, procedural insights, workflow analytics and education and training tools. - The platform is being developed and evaluated across robotic and minimally invasive surgery, GI endoscopy, ophthalmology, interventional cardiology, arthroscopy, neurosurgery, image-guided therapy and other video- and image-enabled specialties. - VisionMed said the goal is to turn visual information that clinicians mostly view and store into structured, usable data. - The company said that data can support documentation, procedural analysis, education, quality improvement and research.

Between the lines: - The board additions signal that VisionMed is leaning into specialties where AI can extract more value from images and video than traditional documentation alone. - The focus on ophthalmology and neurosurgery also suggests EMMA is being positioned for clinical settings with high data density and complex workflows. - VisionMed is framing the product less as a record-keeping tool and more as a platform for downstream clinical and operational uses.

What's next: - VisionMed will use the advisory board to support product development, clinical validation and workflow integration as EMMA expands into more specialties. - The company will continue evaluating EMMA across procedural medicine, including ophthalmology and neurosurgery. - VisionMed also plans to use the board’s expertise to guide physician education and AI applications across the platform.

The bottom line: - VisionMed is adding two high-profile specialists to help push EMMA deeper into image-driven procedural medicine and broaden its clinical relevance.