Artificial intelligence 'set to revolutionise' UK healthcare at new technology centres

Announced today (November 6), new centres are set to bring together doctors, businesses and academics to develop products driven by AI technology.

This is said to improve early diagnosis of disease, including cancer by detecting abnormalities.

The products developed at the new centres aim to offer more personalised treatment for patients while freeing up doctors to spend more time caring for patients.

Business secretary, Greg Clark, said: “AI has the potential to revolutionise healthcare and improve lives for the better.

“That’s why our modern Industrial Strategy puts pioneering technologies at the heart of our plans to build a Britain fit for the future.

“The innovation at these new centres will help diagnose disease earlier to give people more options when it comes to their treatment, and make reporting more efficient, freeing up time for our much-admired NHS staff time to spend on direct patient care.”

The centres will be funded through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund - the government’s flagship investment programme, managed by UK Research and Innovation.

The centres will be backed by medical companies including GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips, Leica, Canon and Roche Diagnostics.

UKRI’s chief executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, added: “Early diagnosis of illness can greatly increase the chances of successful treatment and save lives.

“The centres announced today bring together the teams that will develop artificial intelligence tools that can analyse medical images varying from x-rays to microscopic sections from tissue biopsies.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionise the speed and accuracy of medical diagnosis.”

The centres are:

• London Medical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence Centre for Value-Based Healthcare.

• Glasgow’s I-CAIRD (Industrial Centre for AI Research in Digital Diagnostics).

• Oxford’s NCIMI (National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging).

• Leeds’ The Northern Pathology Imaging Collaborative (NPIC).

• Coventry’s Pathology image data Lake for Analytics, Knowledge and Education (PathLAKE).

The centres, which will be based at universities and NHS facilities, are expected to be up and running during 2019.