The Operating Theatre Journal - Journal - Page 11
Why healthcare data will be the panacea to NHS challenges
Mark Hitchman, Managing
Director of Canon Medical
Systems UK, explains how
healthcare data must
be harnessed through
specialist digital data and
AI acceleration initiatives
to improve outcomes, tackle
waiting lists and alleviate
staff shortages.
It is estimated that hospitals
produce 50 petabytes of data per
year(i). That’s 50,000 terabytes
or the equivalent of a billion tall
昀椀ling cabinets of information such
as text health records, CT or MRI
scan images and laboratory results.
This huge trove of digital health
data holds exciting potential for
the advancement of early disease
detection, better patient outcomes
and alleviating workforce issues.
Tech tools can alleviate burden on existing workforces
Workforces have been squeezed for many years by budget cuts,
retirement rates and recruitment challenges. But by opting for
diagnostic imaging that makes the most of the resources available,
ef昀椀ciencies can be gained, error rates reduced and workload capacity
augmented.
Automated features are simple med-tech advancements that can help
a radiographer with patient positioning, procedural consideration and
accurate image acquisition. Automation also assists with radiology
reporting tasks, 昀椀rst review triage or 昀氀agging scans of concern, worklist
prioritisation and even diagnosis in routine work. This can help speed up
treatment decision making, improving productivity and automatically
reducing workload. At the same time, patient appointment times can
be shortened to provide more slots during working hours to help battle
the long waiting lists.
In emergency medicine, AI-assisted diagnostic tools can help with
heavy workloads. For example, AutoEmergency has been designed to
optimise treatment outcomes for A&E cases when speed and accuracy
are crucial. This comprises stroke and chest pain modules that swiftly
and automatically categorise images to detect signs of ischemic and
haemorrhagic stroke in minutes or triage life-threatening acute chest
pain for pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection.
By accessing information from healthcare institutions - deidentifying it
so that personal information cannot be attributed to a speci昀椀c person
and processing it through safe Arti昀椀cial Intelligence (AI) research
platforms - technical algorithms can be trained to innovate medical
technology and change the way healthcare services are rolled out. This
has bene昀椀ts at the point of patient care, at a department level, and
from a national health perspective.
This isn’t science 昀椀ction or visionary rhetoric. Partnerships between
industry, academia, developers and healthcare institutions are now in
place to bring the bene昀椀ts of health AI to the masses.
Understand more accurately what is needed in
proactive healthcare
Accelerating the capabilities of AI through analysing UK health data will
also deliver huge bene昀椀ts to patients when it comes to detecting health
population problems early and, before symptoms present.
Screening programmes are hugely successful - it is noted that 10,000
lives a year are saved through prevention and early diagnosis(ii). So,
imagine the potential quality of life that could be saved if more people
were seen and targeted by understanding disease prevalence in more
detail following data analysis by postcode or patient pro昀椀le.
Early disease detection improves outcomes
The earlier disease is identi昀椀ed, the quicker the patient can access a
care pathway for treatment. With current backlogs and long waiting
times for appointments, the 昀椀rst time a patient gets seen for diagnostic
investigation, they rely heavily upon accurate 昀椀rst-time scanning with
clear image acquisition. The expansion and development of existing
frontline diagnostic systems with AI helps to ensure that the optimal
image is taken 昀椀rst time for a quick and accurate patient prognosis.
This has been successfully achieved by training AI algorithms and
incorporating advanced Deep Machine Learning reconstruction
technologies into current imaging systems used daily. This reduces
image noise and boosts signal to deliver sharp, clear and distinct clinical
images at speed, 昀椀rst time.
Early diagnosis is also better for the overall health economy. For
example, identifying small lesions, polyps or nodules early for cancer
investigations through the use of AI-assisted diagnostic imaging means
that resulting interventions are needed at a much lower unit cost. This
can include keyhole or minimally invasive procedures that avoid more
costly open surgery, anaesthesia, longer hospital stays and ongoing
medication. This is better for the health economy and patient recovery.
By gathering data from millions of past clinical cases that have
already been veri昀椀ed by experienced and knowledgeable clinicians, AI
algorithms can be taught what to look out for.
The power of unlocking data and using AI to identify normal scans
quickly among large-scale screening cohorts would also greatly assist
the human-power behind radiological reporting. It could speed up the
delivery of results to patients and streamline entire initiatives to reach
greater numbers of people, separating out inconclusive results to be
traditionally reviewed by radiologists.
Our work in unlocking data is already being advanced through the
Safe-Haven Arti昀椀cial Intelligence Platform (SHAIP) collaborations with
industry partners, leading universities and NHS Trusts in Scotland.
This progress is to be expanded in 2023 with national scaling of the
SHAIP initiative and more regional locations added across primary
and secondary care including NHS hospital Trusts, Integrated Care
Systems (ICS), Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) and independent
healthcare service providers. This will build on the diversity of data
already collected to ultimately build a truly representative picture of
the UK health population.
It’s here, it’s real and it’s progressive. Data is the remedy to many ills
in our healthcare system.
i) World Economic Forum, Four ways data is helping to improve healthcare, 2019,
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/four-ways-data-is-improving-healthcare
ii) Review of national cancer screening programmes in England, 2019,
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/terms-of-reference-review-nationalcancer-screening-programmes-england/
Find out more 02921 680068 • e-mail admin@lawrand.com
When responding to articles please quote ‘OTJ’
Issue 400
January
2024
11