A surgeon, academic, and successful entrepreneur, I have spent my career caring for surgical patients and studying the operating room and the surgical profession through the lenses of ethics, innovation, data science, and efficiency. From a research and academic standpoint, most of my work falls under the umbrella of “surgical transparency” – how to enhance the transfer of information into and out of the operating room for the benefit of patients, hospital staff, and the healthcare system with the goal of improving outcomes and building operational efficiency.I directed the Operative Performance Research Institute at the University of Chicago from 2012-2015, from which I spun off Explorer Surgical, a startup based on a groundbreaking surgical workflow app we developed in the lab; Explorer was acquired by GHX in 2021. Now at Vanderbilt since 2015, I continue to focus on real time surgical data acquisition and analysis, surgeon-patient communication, informed consent, and the ethical implications of operating room recording (e.g., surgicalrecording.org). I also serve as an innovation ambassador for Vanderbilt’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization and work to enhance the translation of clinical insights to commercialize able IP. More about my research and activities can be found at AlexanderLangerman.com.From a clinical standpoint, I am a head and neck cancer and reconstructive surgeon. In addition to cancer, I also treat benign tumors of the parotid, thyroid, and neck, and have expertise in paragangliomas, parapharyngeal space tumors, Zenkers diverticulum, pharyngoceles, sialendoscopy, and minimally-invasive approaches to stones (calculi) of the parotid and submandibular glands.