CAP-AI, a pioneering research programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI), is underway at Barts Life Sciences involving project teams from Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London.
The organisations will support London-based Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) with the aim of creating a new product that can be commercialised.
Comprised of five projects, CAP-AI is London’s first AI-enabling programme focused on stimulating growth in London’s AI cluster using AI and machine learning to deliver innovative healthcare and services to improve outcomes for patients.
Sven Bunn, Programme Director Barts Life Sciences, said: “This collaboration between the NHS, higher education and AI start-ups makes it possible for us to explore AI’s true potential in healthcare. Barts Health is best-placed to deliver revolutionary breakthroughs in AI, due to its diverse patient population serving around 2.5 million people who speak over 60 languages.”
“The NHS Long Term plan outlines a much more central role for AI technologies in healthcare over the next decade. Our CAP-AI programme places Barts Health NHS Trust at the forefront of that mission and we’re proud to be leading the way for AI and machine learning in healthcare.”
Two projects are already underway – the first led by Vascular Consultant, Sandip Sarkar from Barts Health NHS Trust in partnership with AI-start-up Motilent. Together they aim to use AI to predict how congenital ascending aortic aneurysm, an unpredictable and potentially deadly condition, is likely to develop in patients – which would enable their care to be better managed and aortic ruptures detected ahead of time.
Another project, working with iPlato Healthcare and Queen Mary University of London, aims to use AI to improve the treatment options for the thousands of patients across the UK with musculoskeletal (MSK) problems. Machine learning algorithms will be used within the ‘myGP’ app to offer appropriate alternatives for treatment to improve patient experience, reduce costs and free up GP time.
Future projects, which are due to start over the coming months, will aim to use AI to improve analysis of cardiac MRI scans, monitor online health boards to improve recruitment of suitable patients for clinical trials, and to predict vascular complications for patients with diabetes.
John Spindler, CEO of Capital Enterprise said: “Barts NHS Health Trust is enabling some of London’s most innovate startups in the ‘AI in Healthcare’ space to work on some very exciting and ground-breaking projects. Capital Enterprise is proud to be working with the Trust as part of the part-ERDF funded CAP-AI Programme and is excited to see the outcomes of these collaborations.”
