Humber and North Yorkshire Collaboration of Acute Providers annual report for 2025/26 has shared achievements across imaging, diagnostics and order comms, with discussion on next steps and the future of acute care in the region.
Focuses for 2025/26 included reducing unwarranted variation and improving timely imaging and reporting through the development of standardised pathways, the collaboration outlines. Procurement has been completed for an order comms solution to support GPs to request imaging tests electronically, along with a shared history and reporting extension to the radiology information system to enable clinicians to view patient imaging completed elsewhere in the network.
AI for fracture detection has been implemented across York and Scarborough sites, Scunthorpe General Hospital, and Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, with the CAP reporting “seamless integration” into existing picture archiving and communication systems workflows, and more than 45,000 case studies processed as part of the pilot.
Near real-time AI generated annotated images are supporting clinical review and prioritisation, it continues, and clinical validation through the audit of 500 emergency department cases showed sensitivity of 96.3 percent, specificity of 77.8 percent, negative predictive value of 97.3 percent, and overall accuracy of 84.6 percent.
“For staff, the technology acts as a second reader, improving diagnostic confidence, particularly for less experienced clinicians and during high-demand or out-of-hours periods,” CAP highlights. “Patients benefit from faster identification of potential fractures and earlier clinical decision-making. However, audit findings have also highlighted the importance of careful implementation, as false-positive AI outputs can lead to additional imaging, admissions, and follow-up appointments.”
The next phase will look to strengthen evaluation, optimisation, and scaling adoption across the region, according to the CAP. Clinical workflows will be refined to reduce the impact of false positives, further engagement will be undertaken with emergency department teams to promote continuous feedback, and additional studies will be explored for their potential in improving understanding of performance in specific clinical scenarios such as hip fracture pathways. Expansion to other trusts in the region will be considered, it goes on, along with integration into wider diagnostic and triage pathways.
An additional £500k has been secured to support the implementation of digital diagnostics for Humber and North Yorkshire, and an expression of interest has been completed for the diagnostic digital capacity fund 2026-30, with £24 million of investment requested over the next four years.
Next steps for digital include an order comms pilot at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals in September 2026, implementation of shared reporting and scheduling at the Humber Health Partnership also in September 2026, and the roll out of iRefer across Humber and North Yorkshire from March 2027.
For 2026/27, the focus will be on implementing core imaging digital storage and sharing solutions such as RIS, picture archiving and communication systems, and the national imaging registry. Infrastructure to support these solutions will also be implemented, including increased bandwidth and cloud storage capability. AI and other digital solutions for improving productivity will be explored, such as MRI acceleration software, AI scheduling and booking solutions, and AI to support cancer FDS in dermatology, chest x-ray, and prostate patients.
Wider trend: AI
A dataset comprising close to 1 million images linked to patient clinical records has been published by Moorfields and UCL with hopes to support the development of AI tools and research on anterior segment conditions including cataracts. Moorfields states this type of eye condition is a leading cause of blindness, however less than ten percent of ophthalmic imaging datasets currently include them. The CADMUS dataset reportedly holds 945,243 images from 22,482 unique patients, collected from visits to Moorfields between December 2019 and September 2024. Data from follow-up visits allows the study of disease progression and long-term outcomes, the trust notes.
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. LNWH shares hopes that use of Eureka will enhance precision, reduce risk of accidental injury, and help to support surgeons during complex procedures.
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has started a pilot of an AI tool said to be capable of analysing routine clinical information and identifying infection risk early. MEMORI, developed in collaboration with teams at the trust and embedded in Sunrise, has reportedly been offered for trial at no cost as part of a long term partnership with Sanome focusing on clinical AI safety. The tool has been rolled out in the Harvey ward at Kent and Canterbury Hospital. The AI tool is said to analyse individual patient data including observations, medications, and demographics, and using what it has learnt from thousands of other patients to predict an infection risk score. The system also offers alerts if patient risk level changes.
