£250 million to be invested into NHS artificial intelligence

The National Artificial Intelligence Lab for the NHS will receive £250 million in funding for services to deliver faster breast screening results and better predictions for drug and bed usage. This funding will not reach the artificial lab until the financial year 2020/21. The overarching aims are to upskill the NHS workforce so they can use AI systems on shift and use the lab to identify patients with the highest risk of developing life-threatening diseases.

Boris Johnson commented: “My task is to ensure the NHS has the funding it needs to make a real difference to the lives of staff and patients. Transforming care through artificial intelligence is a perfect illustration of that.”

Secretary of health and social care – Matt Hancock – claimed: “The experts tell us that because of our NHS and our tech talent, the UK could be the world leader in these advances in healthcare, so I’m determined to give the NHS the chance to be the world leader in saving lives through artificial intelligence and genomics.”

Full story in HSJ, 7 August 2019