An inquiry into personalised medicine and AI, along with an associated call for evidence, has been issued by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, seeking to explore possibilities, assess current regulatory frameworks, and understand how best to deploy proven innovations across the NHS.
“We will examine the gap between early-stage research, clinical trials and NHS-wide delivery, looking at blockages in the system slowing progress, including procurement processes, clinical pathways, and the role of regulators and professional bodies. We will also examine how the fragmentation of the overall NHS structure contributes to the uneven deployment of innovation, how the costs of personalised treatments can be reduced, and the clinical academics and clinical trials infrastructure needed to rapidly deploy innovations within the NHS,” said Lord Mair, chair of the committee.
The inquiry covers the scientific background to personalised medicine and AI, the role of AI in personalised medicine, health data research infrastructure, the life sciences sector, regulation, deployment, and more.
Specifically, the call for evidence seeks to gain insight into the most significant near-term opportunities for patients to benefit from personalised medicine and AI, where major gaps in understanding exist, what is needed to unlock opportunities, what role AI can play in accelerating the development and reducing the cost of personalised medicine, and where AI tools can be most effective in advancing personalised medicine.
Further information is also sought as to how the NHS’s digital and IT infrastructure represents a barrier to deployment, challenges with moving from early-stage research to clinical trials and regulatory approval, examples of good practice within the NHS of adopting innovations, and what needs to be done to encourage uptake of personalised medicine and a service that puts patient needs first.
“What should the Government do, at a strategic level, to strengthen the feedback loop between medical research, the life sciences industry, and the NHS, so that innovations developed domestically can be adopted at scale in the NHS, and clinical insights from the NHS can feed back into R&D and the life sciences sector?” the committee asks. “What would be the most important interventions you would prioritise to improve this process? What does the NHS most urgently need to do to position itself to benefit from innovations in personalised medicine and AI?”
Ideal submissions will include a front page summarising key points and policy recommendations, the committee highlights. Paragraphs should be numbered, and if generative AI is used this should be disclosed. Submissions can be made until 23:59 on 20 April, 2026.
Wider trend: health tech innovation from across the health and care sector
University Hospitals of Liverpool Group is seeking feedback on its five-year strategy developed using population health data. The cornerstone of these plans will be the procurement of a single EPR, the group states, along with the development of a shared digital infrastructure with simplified digital systems and reduced logins. Technology will be used in transforming clinical services, offering alternative pathways to diagnosis, and informing treatment planning models. The move to digital by default and preventative care will also reportedly harness functionality offered by the NHS App, wearables, and AI and automation.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health has developed an AI tool offering clinical decision support to clinicians by predicting patients at risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) from data collected during medical visits. Led by researchers from Harvard Medical School, the study trained a machine learning model using several years of hospital data from around 850 female patients affected by IPV, along with 5,200 control patients matched on age and demographics.
Liverpool-based Spotlight Pathology has secured £1.4 million in seed funding to support the development of its AI-powered blood cancer diagnostics software. The funding round was co-led by the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Liverpool City Region Seed Fund. Funding will be used toward product development, regulation, and clinical adoption for the company’s AI software capable of analysing digital pathology images to support the earlier identification of blood cancers.
The Health Tech Awards are back for another year to share and celebrate success across health and care! Over 150 NHS leaders from a variety of care settings and backgrounds carefully and meticulously judge the awards, selecting our winners. The online awards are designed to celebrate digital teams, programmes, innovations and health tech suppliers which have made a difference throughout the year. The Health Tech Awards provide a platform to share these innovations and solutions to help shape future services and systems across health and care. To learn more about this year’s categories and how to enter, please click here.
