An AI system is being used to colour code internal anatomy during surgery at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, said to help surgeons to see subtle structures that might be hard to distinguish with the eye.
The Eureka system analyses the surgical field in real-time, overlaying colours onto structures such as nerves and connective tissue. Surgeons are able to choose between keeping the overlay constant, or having it pulse intermittently during different stages of a procedure.
St Mark’s National Bowel Hospital is one of the sites helping to evaluate the system. Kapil Sahnan, colorectal surgeon, was one of the first to try out the new system during a bowel resection procedure, describing it as like having an “extra arm”.
LNWH shares hopes that use of Eureka will enhance precision, reduce risk of accidental injury, and help to support surgeons during complex procedures.
A YouTube video available from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons offers insight into how the system works to assist surgeons, showing its use during a rectal cancer dissection to highlight connective tissue and nerves. Eureka has also been featured in Surgical Endoscopy, where a study explored whether AI navigation could assist trainees in recognising nerves during colorectal surgery.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research recently awarded £8 million to six innovations using AI and digital to speed up diagnosis and improve patient care. Innovations granted a share of the funding include SAMURAI-CT, an AI tool designed to detect “serious findings” from head CT scans with aims of reducing discharge times by more than 20 percent. It is currently being tested across Oxford University Hospitals, Royal Berkshire, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Wider trend: Health AI
For a recent session focusing on AI in healthcare, HTN was joined by an expert panel including Simon Brown, head of digital at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Wahida Jabarzai, clinical AI and automation delivery lead at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and University Hospitals of Leicester; and Julian Wiggins, healthcare solution director at Rackspace Technology. Our panel considered the wider challenge of AI adoption, looking at what makes a successful deployment, introducing AI safely and sustainably at scale, and some of the use cases currently delivering value across their organisations.
The MHRA has published findings from the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare research, pointing to the need to balance a desire to use AI in improving patient care and supporting healthcare professionals, with “safe, fast and trusted” regulation. Almost three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed that the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure safety and performance standards; with 61 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with its effectiveness in tackling data governance and data privacy. 61 percent also thought current requirements for clinical evidence are insufficient, and 65 percent pointed to a need for more to be done on post-market surveillance.
NHS England has set out plans to commit £10 billion in funding over the next three years for tech and digital systems, including an AI triage tool for the NHS App, with hopes of turning the investment into £41 billion in total benefits. The AI triage tool has been trialled at a GP practice in Sussex, where it reportedly resulted in a 29 percent reduction in the number of people queueing on the phone. It will now be rolled out further, with a target to support all NHS App users by April 2028, NHS England outlines. The solution is said to help signpost patients to the most appropriate care, including GP, pharmacy, A&E, and self-care advice, adapting questions depending on responses to get a detailed view of a patient’s condition. It shares information collected with clinicians to help inform their prioritisation of care.
