South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Beckett University are collaborating on a project aiming to digitise the trust’s adult ADHD and autism service, to support with diagnosis and prioritisation of services.
With professor of computer science Grigoris Antoniou leading the team, the partnership will examine how computing technologies and artificial intelligence can be used to support “various stages of the clinical pathways”. Further down the line, there are ambitions to develop technology capable of being widely deployed within the NHS and across other providers.
Professor Grigoris comments: “Healthcare services for neurodevelopmental conditions are facing unprecedented demand from patients – and computing can play an important role to alleviate the pressures. I have been working with the trust for a number of years, using AI to support and speed up the diagnosis of adult ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.”
Professor Marios Adamou OBE, consultant psychiatrist and head of the adult ADHD and autism service at the trust, reiterates the “numerous challenges” faced by the NHS with regards to meeting rising demand whilst maintaining quality of care, and adds: “I firmly believe that information technology and AI are crucial tools to help us face up to these challenges. My service has been at the forefront of efforts to add digital tools to our clinical practice, and the new collaboration will allow us to particularly focus on the early stages of our diagnostic pathway: triage, initial data collection and prioritisation of waiting lists.”
In other news around autism services, last month we highlighted how Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has launched a new Virtual Autism Hub to offer non-clinical advice, with the aim of bolstering support for autistic people and their families across Lincolnshire.
Previously, we explored a study commissioned by NHS England which examined clinician views on the use of digital technology in the autism assessment pathway.
We also recently shared a feature exploring the digital health landscape across Yorkshire and the North East, highlighting strategies, digital representation on boards, insights from organisations and more.
