AI model being trained with NHS data from 57m people ‘could predict disease'
The model, know as Foresight, uses similar technology to ChatGPT but rather than predicting the next sentence it predicts future health conditions based on a patient's medical history.
Foresight is really exciting step towards being able to predict disease and complications before they happen, giving us a window to intervene and enabling shift towards more preventative healthcare at scale Dr Chris Tomlinson, UCL
As part of the pilot, it will be trained using eight routinely collected datasets from across England, including hospital admissions, A&E attendances and Covid-19 vaccination rates, which have been stripped of personal information.
Dr Chris Tomlinson, of UCL, said: 'Foresight is a really exciting step towards being able to predict disease and complications before they happen, giving us a window to intervene and enabling shift towards more preventative healthcare at scale.
'And to give a practical example of what that actually looks like, we could use Foresight to look across the whole population and predict the risk of, for example, unscheduled hospitalisation.
'This is a really significant event that often heralds deterioration in the patient's health but can occur from a variety of different causes, and also has a major resource implication on the health service.
'We can then use Foresight to understand the drivers for that deterioration, and potentially suggest personalising opportunities for intervention so that might include, for example, optimising medications to improve blood pressure control and reduce the risk of, say, stroke.'
Foresight is currently restricted to Covid-19-related research.
Dr Tomlinson added: 'We're looking at predicting Covid-19 outcomes – which may help us inform the next pandemic – but we're also testing the model's ability to generalise to other important healthcare outcomes, such as predicting the risk of hospitalisation or death in the next year, as well as the onset of over 1,000 different conditions.
'Ultimately, we'd like to increase the depth and capability of Foresight by including richer sources of data – information like physicians' notes and the results of investigations such as blood tests or scans.'
The pilot study will operate within NHS England's Secure Data Environment, which will provide access to de-personalised records with patient data remaining under strict NHS control.
An unrelenting focus on privacy and security, means people can rest assured that their data is in safe hands Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle
Dr Vin Diwakar, national director of transformation at NHS England, said: 'The NHS Secure Data Environment has been fundamental to this pioneering research, shaping a future where earlier treatments and interventions are targeted to those who will benefit, preventing future ill health.
'This will boost our ability to move quickly towards personalised, preventative care.'
Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle added: 'This ambitious research shows how AI, paired with the NHS's wealth of secure and anonymised data, is set to unlock a healthcare revolution.
'This technology is transforming what's possible in tackling a host of debilitating diseases, from diagnosis, to treatment, to prevention.
'This is work that that will be instrumental to this Government's missions to overhaul healthcare and grow the economy, which sit at the heart of our Plan for Change.
'And an unrelenting focus on privacy and security means people can rest assured that their data is in safe hands.'
The new pilot comes after a study, published in the Lancet Digital Health in March 2024, found Foresight was able to predict the type of health conditions a patient is likely to develop in the future.
Professor Richard Dobson, deputy director of the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and another lead researcher at KCL and UCL, added: 'This pilot is building on previous research that demonstrated Foresight's ability to predict health trajectories from data from two NHS trusts.
'To be able to use it in a national setting is very exciting as it will potentially demonstrate more powerful predictions that can inform services nationally and locally.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Sick and injured children from Gaza to be evacuated to UK for NHS care
Top ministers are understood to be working on a scheme to bring children from Gaza to the UK for NHS medical care, with plans expected to be unveiled within weeks Plans are being drawn up to evacuate more seriously ill children from Gaza for NHS treatment. Top ministers are understood to be working on a scheme to bring sick children to the UK for free medical care, with plans expected to be unveiled within weeks. More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in the conflict since October 7 2023 according to the UN charity Unicef. It comes after furious Bob Geldof issued a desperate plea on Sky News to save babies in Gaza. Only three kids have been granted medical visas to come to Britain for treatment so far through work by the group Project Pure Hope, which was set up by volunteer medical professionals. Earlier this year, Ghena, 5, and Rama, 12, came to the UK via Egypt for privately-funded treatment for serious health conditions unrelated to the conflict. Rama, who has a lifelong bowel condition, was able to get surgery in Britain that was unavailable in her home of Khan Younis, in war-torn Gaza. Ghena had laser surgery to relieve fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could have cost her her sight in her left eye. Last week, 15-year-old Majd Alshagnobi was flown to Britain for facial reconstructive surgery after an Israeli tank shell destroyed his jaw while he was seeking aid in February 2024. Keir Starmer promised Mirror readers last month that he would act to help more sick and injured Palestinian children, saying the public were 'sickened' by scenes of desperation and starvation in Gaza. The PM said at the time: "We are urgently accelerating efforts to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance – bringing more Palestinian children to the UK for specialist medical treatment." It is unclear how many children would be covered by the new scheme but it is understood ministers are looking to significantly increase numbers. Each child would be accompanied by a parent or guardian and siblings if necessary, according to the Sunday Times. The Home Office will carry out biometric and security checks before they travel. In 2022, 21 Ukrainian children were brought to the UK to get cancer treatment on the NHS. More than 100 MPs signed a letter urging the Government to fast-track the scheme to help children from Gaza. The letter, coordinated by Labour MP Stella Creasy, said: 'Parliament may be in recess but the commitment we all share to help these children remains absolute and urgent – with every day, more are harmed or die, making the need to overcome any barriers to increasing the support we give them imperative. 'We stand ready to support whatever it takes to make this happen and ask for your urgent response to this request. Let's make it happen.' A Government spokesperson said: "We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care. "We are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible, with further details to be set out in due course." The UK and Jordan are working together to airdrop aid into Gaza after Israel temporarily paused military activity amid international outrage at widespread starvation and malnutrition. Mr Starmer said last week that the UK would recognise a Palestinian state in September if Israel did not change course.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Great Ormond Street Hospital surgeons forced to use mobile phone torches during surgery after power cut
Surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for children were forced to use mobile phone torches during an operation due to a power outage, the NHS's safety watchdog has found. The leading children's hospital has faced ongoing concerns over the maintenance of its estate and operating theatres, which have led to water leaks and power outages, according to a report by the Care Quality Commission. The CQC warned of 'recurrent' problems, including a power outage during spinal surgery and ventilation failures. The watchdog's inspection came after GOSH faced scrutiny over the care of hundreds of children by orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabber. In its report, the CQC said it found concerns around 'surgical accountability and oversight' at the trust. The news comes as the NHS in England faces a £14 billion backlog in estate maintenance spending, meaning hospital buildings are facing issues which can impact patient safety and lead to the cancellation of operations. Earlier this year, the National Audit Office warned that around 5,400 clinical service incidents occur in the NHS each year due to building or infrastructure failures. The CQC report's findings into building failures, first revealed by The Sunday Times, said: 'Concerns were raised about the maintenance of operating theatres and equipment safety. A recent power outage during a spinal surgery procedure required staff to use mobile phone torches to complete wound closure. 'This incident, alongside reports of water leaks affecting electrical systems and theatre closures due to filtration failures, indicated ongoing issues with estates and facilities management.' The CQC report said the trust took actions to address the problems; however, it warned there were 'recurrent theatre maintenance failures that had resulted in delayed or cancelled surgical procedures, impacting patient safety and access to timely care.' A spokeswoman for the trust said the incident was caused by an electrical system power failure and that an external review had been commissioned. The trust told The Sunday Times the surgical lights immediately over the patient remained during the power cut, but that theatre staff moving around the operating theatre had to use a phone torch to avoid cables and find the equipment needed. The Independent has approached GOSH over the use of physician associates to fill doctor rota gaps. According to the think tank, The Health Foundation, the NHS needs its capital spending to grow by 10.2 per cent a year between 2024-25 and 2029-30 to address its maintenance backlog, to invest in technology, buildings and equipment to improve services. Following the government's spending review, the capital budget for the Department for Health and Social Care is expected to grow by £2.3 billion from £10.9 billion in 2023-24 to £13.2 billion in 2025-26. Hospitals across the country report incidents due to poor infrastructure or building issues. Last month, Gloucester Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust experienced an issue with its servers, which forced it to rely on paper ahead of a five-day junior doctor strike. According to the Sunday Times, in June, the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford was forced to close several wards and divert ambulances due to a burst pipe. St Helier Hospital in Sutton, which had to cancel urgent tests due to flooding, told the paper 'Our ageing hospitals are deteriorating faster than we can fix them — with issues such as floods, leaking roofs, and broken-down lifts, as well as buildings that have had to be demolished because the foundations are sinking'. Last year, the government identified more hospitals which had been impacted by a long-running issue of having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) across its estates – a total of 47 hospitals have been identified.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
UK to evacuate injured children from Gaza to receive NHS care
The UK government will evacuate seriously ill and injured children from Gaza to the UK for NHS treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks. Ministers will enable children in severe need to receive taxpayer-funded care. Three children were brought to the UK this year through a private scheme by the charity Project Pure Hope. A government spokesperson said: 'We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care. 'We are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible, with further details to be set out in due course.' More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since the outbreak of the war between Hamas and Israel in October 2023, according to Unicef data. Keir Starmer said last week that the UK was 'urgently accelerating' efforts to bring children over for treatment. The government scheme will operate in parallel to the initiative by Project Pure Hope, which was set up to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK privately for treatment. Through the charity's initiative, Majd al-Shagnobi, a 15-year-old from Gaza, became the first Palestinian child to be flown to the UK for treatment for war injuries. He required complex facial reconstructive surgery after an Israeli tank shell destroyed his jaw when he was trying to access aid in February last year. His treatment at Great Ormond Street hospital in London is being privately funded by Project Pure Hope and is being carried out by a medical team who will all work for free. Earlier this year, the charity secured visas for two girls from Gaza – 13-year-old Rama and five-year-old Ghena – to have privately funded operations in the UK for lifelong medical conditions. News of the government's plans comes after domestic political pressure. More than 100 MPs signed a letter coordinated by Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, calling on ministers to evacuate 30 severely ill children to the UK for treatment. A foreign affairs select committee report at the end of July said ministers had 'declined to support a medical evacuation of critically injured children to the UK, involving coordinating travel permits, medical visas and safe transport to the UK, where the children can receive specialised care unavailable to them in Gaza'. The Guardian reported last month that the government was facing legal action from a law firm acting on behalf of three critically ill children in Gaza. Other countries have been faster to act. Italy has evacuated dozens of Palestinian children and families for medical treatment, with the first group arriving in January 2024. The Sunday Times, which first reported the story, cited a senior Whitehall source who said up to 300 children could be brought to the UK from Gaza under the government's scheme. They will be accompanied by a parent or guardian and their siblings if necessary, and the Home Office will carry out biometric checks before travel, according to the newspaper. Project Pure Hope welcomed the government's announcement and said it would be sharing its expertise from nearly two years of successful evacuations. 'Our blueprint can help ensure the UK acts quickly and effectively so that every child who needs urgent care has the best chance of survival and recovery,' a spokesperson said. The charity has been urging the government to create a scheme similar to the one established for Ukrainian refugees since November 2023. The UK has been working with the Jordanian government to airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza in response to the widespread starvation caused by Israel's blockade. Starmer has announced plans for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state in September before the UN general assembly unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank and commits to a peace process leading to a two-state solution.
