SAS wins Fast Company nod for Danish hospital digital twin

SAS has been named to Fast Company's 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list, recognised in the Applied AI category for its digital twin work with Danish sterilisation provider Sterilcentral.

The project focuses on the flow of sterilised surgical instruments used across hospitals in Denmark's capital region.

Sterilcentral operates a fully automated sterilisation facility that supports about 1,000 surgeries a day across seven hospitals. The site handles the washing, drying, packaging and delivery of thousands of instruments, and any disruption can affect hospital schedules across the region.

SAS built a digital twin of key parts of Sterilcentral's Herlev facility to model how instruments move through the site. Using operational data, the virtual model simulates processes, tests scenarios and identifies bottlenecks before changes are made in the live environment.

The system was built on SAS Viya and uses 3D environments from Epic Games' Unreal Engine. SAS says the model combines analytics, machine learning, simulation and AI to assess how the sterilisation process is performing and where delays may emerge.

Hospital flow

The work focuses on an area of healthcare logistics that is often out of public view but is central to day-to-day hospital operations. Surgical teams depend on the timely arrival of cleaned and sterilised instruments, and interruptions can delay procedures if replacement stock is unavailable.

At the Danish facility, the model helped teams test assumptions about where hold-ups were occurring. It also allowed them to trial process changes in a virtual setting rather than in a live facility supporting hospitals each day.

The same digital environment was also used to train computer vision models with synthetic data. This was intended to help workers wear protective gear correctly and reduce contamination risks in the sterilisation process.

Digital twins are drawing growing interest across industries as companies look for ways to model complex operations without interrupting production or services. In healthcare and related logistics, the technology is being explored for planning, simulation and oversight where downtime can have immediate consequences.

Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer at SAS, linked the Sterilcentral work to a broader push to apply digital twin systems beyond industrial design and into operational decision-making.

"Digital twins represent a powerful new frontier for AI because they empower organisations to simulate, understand and move first," said Harris.

He added: "Our partnership with Sterilcentral is one example of how we are scaling this impact across every industry to give businesses a decision advantage."

Operational testing

The Sterilcentral project reflects a more specific use of AI in healthcare support services, where reliability rather than direct clinical diagnosis is the main concern. The aim was to improve the handling of surgical instruments and reduce the risk that sterilisation delays would affect theatre schedules.

Thomas Bogeskov, Chief Executive Officer of Sterilcentral, said the work changed the company's understanding of where problems were occurring inside the facility.

"SAS digital twins helped us challenge our assumptions about where delays were occurring," said Bogeskov.

He added: "This technology allowed us to pinpoint bottlenecks, test changes before they affect operations and improve the reliable flow of sterile instruments, ultimately helping patients receive the best, safest care possible. We're excited to see this work recognised not only for the impact it is having today, but for its potential to transform our industry in the years ahead."

Fast Company's annual list highlights technologies its editors believe have the potential to reshape industries. SAS was included in the Applied AI category for the Sterilcentral deployment rather than for a general-purpose product launch.

The recognition comes as software groups seek clearer commercial uses for AI systems in sectors where process failures carry high costs. In Sterilcentral's case, the issue is not only efficiency inside a single plant, but continuity for a network of hospitals that depend on a stable supply of sterilised tools.