5 health tech suppliers have been named as part of phase 3 of the AI in Health and Care Award programme, part of the NHS AI Lab.
Phase 3 aims to support real-world testing in health and social care settings to develop evidence to support further adoption.
42 suppliers were announced today across 4 phases, the first 2 for early stage concepts and prototypes, phase 3 for real-world testing and phase 4 for medium stage technologies seeking wider adoption.
The NHS AI Lab tests and helps scale AI products and is backed by £250m in funding from the Department for Health and Social Care. The Award is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research. It will make £140 million available over three years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI technologies which meet the strategic aims of the NHS Long Term Plan.
Phase 3 projects include:
- A study to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the Ibex Medical Analytics – AI System in diagnosing clinically important prostate cancer in prostate biopsy tissue – Imperial College London
The project involves investigating the accuracy of the AI tool in detecting cancer and other clinically important features in prostate biopsy slides from 600 men across 6 NHS hospitals, and comparing with assessment from trained pathologists. - Real world testing of PreSize Neurovascular: medical device software to optimise stenting surgeries to reduce complications – Oxford Heartbeat Ltd
Testing medical device software that can help doctors plan for high-risk brain surgeries by choosing the best stent for each patient – finding out how the software works across five hospitals, with the aim of improving the standard of care while minimising cost to the healthcare system. - EchoGo Pro: NHS impact of automating coronary artery disease risk prediction in stress echocardiogram clinics – Ultromics Ltd
EchoGo Pro uses AI to analyse stress echocardiograms to help more accurately diagnose heart problems such as blood vessel blockages. This project will assess how the device will benefit the NHS and patients in 12 hospitals and compares results with patients assessed normally by doctors, as well as seeing if the device can save money. - Point-of-care heart failure diagnosis for GP use: Implementation and evaluation of a simple AI-tool into the folio of care pathways – Imperial’s Connected Care national GP network
Testing an AI tool to help GPs diagnose heart failure – the Eko DUO device is a ‘smart’ stethoscope that records an ELECTROcardiogram as well as heart sounds, and is used like a standard stethoscope. It can provide an immediate diagnosis of heart failure using an AI algorithm. This will be evaluated in 500 patients in GPs and secondary care, comparing results to current NHS heart failure care pathways. - Evaluation of the DEONTICS AI platform for personalised, evidence-based treatment planning in multidisciplinary cancer care: Increasing compliance with national standards of care and streamlining MDTs in prostate cancer – Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
The DEONTICS AI platform is designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of multidisciplinary team meetings that make decisions on cancer care for individual patients. This study will evaluate how the platform works to triage less complex patients straight to the treating clinicians, whilst also supporting decisions on care for prostate cancer patients with more complex needs.
