Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of medicine as we know it, and the NHS is slowly harnessing the potential of this powerful tool.
In October 2023, the NHS invested £21 million in AI, with a potential cost savings of £235 million over the next five years.
AI is being implemented across several NHS trusts to deliver care to patients. This transition promises to increase the capacity of the provision of care and deliver faster test results.
In a healthcare system that is overstretched and overburdened, AI is a blindingly obvious solution.
A hospital is not a place that many desire to be. Hospital admissions are often a case of need rather than want.
A rigid hospital bed and the gourmet NHS menu simply lack the appeal for some. But what if you could receive the treatment you needed at home? AI is facilitating exactly this.
Hospitals are now admitting patients to ‘virtual wards ’run by clinicians who closely monitor patients remotely.
The success of these virtual wards is already being celebrated with shorter inpatient admissions and cost savings.
In the field of radiology, AI has already been deployed across approximately 64 hospital trusts. Currently, imaging is performed and reported by a specialist known as a radiologist.
The NHS has a 30 per cent shortfall of these specialist doctors. This means that there are delays in scans being formally reported and subsequent delays in treatment.
With the introduction of AI, scans will be read by software programmed to detect normal X-rays and common pathologies.
This means that scans can be reported more quickly, and in the long term, they will also be interpreted by a radiologist.
As with any software based on an algorithm, there are limitations. False positives are a caveat to the success of AI in radiology.
These may lead to unnecessary intervention, such as the initiation of medications or procedures. Clinicians are therefore encouraged not to rely solely on this technology.
The NHS long-term plan envisions AI as a key player in leading digital transformation to better the provision of care.
It is clear that AI will play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of clinicians within a system that is desperately exhausted.
Although there are further advancements to be made, AI is a sustainable solution with far-reaching benefits, which we need to openly embrace.
