NHS AI Deployment Improves Stroke Recovery

Deployment of an AI diagnostic system for stroke victims by the UK’s National Health Service has led to remarkable results in its first year of operations, with the networks utilizing the technology reporting an increase in patients recovering from the condition, and reduced time determining the best treatment. 

Brainomix developed the e-Stroke system as a support tool for doctors, providing them with real-time analysis of brain scans and insights into the right treatment to provide to a patient. This improvement in the speed of diagnosis and treatment options provides doctors and other medical staff with more clinical time. 

See Also: Innovative Ways Cloud Computing Is Impacting Healthcare

“Every minute saved during the initial hospital assessment of people with stroke-like symptoms can dramatically improve a patient’s chance of leaving hospital in good health,” said NHS England director of transformation, Dr. Timothy Ferris. “The NHS is harnessing the potential that AI has to support expert staff in delivering life-changing care for patients with a range of needs, and through the AI in Health and Care awards we are testing, evaluating and supporting the most promising technologies which could transform the way we deliver care.”

With the e-Stroke tool, specialists are able to view scans in remote locations and provide feedback to doctors on the ground, improving the speed of assessment. This also ensures that patients receive high-quality specialist care from doctors working at these stroke networks. 

“The Brainomix e-Stroke platform has fast become a cornerstone of integrated stroke delivery networks ability to deliver best in class stroke care,” said Riaz Rahman, vice president of healthcare global at Brainomix. “We have collated multiple examples of hard evidence, spanning several networks, confirming the use of e-Stroke helps deliver more consistent treatment decisions and faster patient transfers. This is vitally important in a highly time sensitive pathway.”

Brainomix received funding towards building the tool and deploying it from the first round of the AI in Health and Care Award, which is an £123 million ($150 million) fund backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Accelerated Access Collaboration at NHS England, and the NHS AI Lab. 

Deployment of AI in the UK’s health service is contentious, because of some disagreements as to data collection and ownership, however, the NHS and government have worked over the past few years to ensure that health data on UK citizens remains confidential and on UK servers. 

“AI has the potential to transform our NHS – delivering faster, more accurate diagnoses and making sure patients can get the treatment they need, when they need it,” said Health and Social Care secretary, Steve Barclay. “Brainomix is an incredible example of how this can be achieved, using the power of AI to shave lifesaving minutes off one of the most time-sensitive diagnoses in medicine meaning patients get the treatment they need faster.”