Thousands of patients to benefit from quicker diagnosis and more accurate tests from ground-breaking AI research
- Nine of the most promising artificial intelligence healthcare technologies to receive nearly £16 million in government funding to accelerate research
- Examples include systems to run cancer checks, diagnose rare diseases and identify women at highest risk of premature birth
- Successful technologies will be fast-tracked into NHS to improve speed and accuracy of diagnoses, tackle waiting lists and free up clinician time
Cutting NHS waiting times is one of the government’s top 5 priorities, backed by record funding including up to £14.1 billion for health and social care over the next 2 years. Advances in innovation and technology - including in robotics and artificial intelligence - will give patients greater control and help tackle some of the biggest healthcare challenges from cancer to genetic diseases. These kinds of innovations can free up staff time while speeding up treatments and diagnoses.
Tens of thousands of patients across the country could benefit from quicker, earlier diagnoses and more effective treatments for a range of conditions - as the government invests nearly £16 million into pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) research.
Nine companies have been awarded funding through the third round of the AI in Health and Care Awards, which is accelerating the testing and deployment of the most promising AI technologies. They are delivered between the NHS AI Lab, the Accelerated Access Collaborative and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The winners include AI systems which can help detect cancer, diagnose rare diseases, identify women at highest risk of premature birth and support the treatment of neurological conditions like dementia. The funding will be used to support the testing, evaluation and adoption of their technologies by the NHS.
So far, in total, £123 million has been invested in 86 AI technologies across 3 rounds of awards supporting over 300,000 patients and improving their care and treatment for health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental health and neurological disorders.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
Artificial intelligence has the potential to speed up diagnoses and treatments and free up time for our doctors and nurses so they can focus on caring for patients. Around 300,000 people have already benefited from companies supported by our AI awards, with tens of thousands more set to benefit.
These schemes include technology that could recognise the signs of cancer more quickly and accurately, predict which women are more likely to give birth prematurely or analyse electronic health records to detect the signs of an undiagnosed rare disease.
Start-up Ibex has been awarded more than £1.5 million and it has developed an AI-driven algorithm to run checks for breast cancer. The technology analyses images of tissue extracts, helping pathologists detect cancer, so they can complete diagnoses more quickly. Its high accuracy rate could reduce the need for patients to repeat the biopsy process and free up more time for consultants. Known as Galen Breast, it will be trialled at Cambridge University Hospitals, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust amongst others. Researchers will analyse its findings on 10,000 patients and evaluate improvements in the quality of diagnosis, cost-effectiveness and quicker turnaround times for patients.
Another winner, medical device company Medtronic, has been rolling out devices and therapies to treat more than 30 chronic diseases, including Parkinson’s and diabetes, some of which are being trialled in the NHS. It has been awarded £2.5 million to further develop an AI-based medical device called GI Genius, which has been trained to process colonoscopy images and detect signs of colon cancer, enabling earlier, more accurate diagnoses. An earlier study carried out in Dublin, Ireland suggested the technology could increase the detection of hard-to-detect precancerous polyps - small growths on the inner lining of the rectum - by up to 14.4%. In the 2021 study it was shown to reduce the missed polyp rate by nearly 50%.
Digital health start-up Mendelian has been awarded £1.4 million to support an AI system which identifies patients with undiagnosed rare diseases, as well as recommending the best management options, by analysing electronic health records. In the past decade undiagnosed rare diseases have cost the NHS in excess of £3.4 billion and data shows that patients with rare diseases attend hospitals more than twice as often as other patients, costing the NHS 4 times as much on average. To complement this kind of research, a new Rare Diseases Action Plan for England was published this week to ensure those living with these conditions continue to receive better care and treatment along with fairer access to testing.
Last year, data was published in obstetrics and gynaecology journal BJOG, showing the tool can help reduce health inequalities in Black, Asian and other pregnant women in ethnic minority groups. Researchers found perinatal death rates - those affecting pregnant women and others up to a year after giving birth - were 3 times higher in ethnic minority mothers. However, when the tool was used alongside targeted care, these rates fell to approximately the same across all the ethnic groups.
