Cary, N.C. – October 06, 2026 -- SAS has been named to Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech 2026 list in the Applied AI category for digital twin technology deployed by Sterilcentral, Denmark's largest medical sterilization provider, to manage instrument flow across seven hospitals supporting roughly 1,000 surgeries daily in the Danish capital region.
SAS built a 3D digital twin of Sterilcentral's Herlev facility to track thousands of instruments daily
The digital twin, built on SAS Viya and enhanced with 3D environments from Epic Games' Unreal Engine, models the washing, drying, packaging and delivery stages where instruments move through the facility. SAS and Sterilcentral used the system to locate and resolve disruptions in the sterilization pipeline that were previously difficult to isolate.
Computer vision models trained on synthetic data now monitor worker protective gear compliance
The same 3D environment generated synthetic data sets used to train computer vision models that verify workers wear protective equipment correctly, reducing contamination risk in the sterilization process. Sterilcentral CEO Thomas Bogeskov said the technology allowed his team to test operational changes before they affected live facility output and to pinpoint where delays were originating, rather than relying on assumptions.
A facility outage would halt surgeries across Denmark's capital region, raising the stakes for reliability
Sterilcentral's fully automated sterilization operation is mission-critical infrastructure for the region's hospital network; if the facility goes offline, surgical schedules across the capital region could come to a standstill. SAS Chief Technology Officer Bryan Harris said digital twins let organizations simulate and understand operations before acting, and that the Sterilcentral partnership demonstrates how the company is scaling that capability across industries.
Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech list recognizes technologies the publication identifies as having the potential to transform industries. SAS's recognition in the Applied AI category centers specifically on the Sterilcentral deployment rather than a broader product launch.