BT has launched new AI and digital services in diagnostics to support the NHS in tackling wait times and speeding up diagnosis for patients.
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BT is working in partnership with specialist health technology companies, deepc and AXON Diagnostics to help free up doctors’ time by connecting them with new AI tools and open up digital diagnosis to more hospitals.
With the NHS grappling with a fall in the number of skilled healthcare workers and an increased reliance on outsourcing, BT is working with AI Operating System deepc aims to help increase patient flow and address the existing backlog. The radiology platform can help medical professionals access the clinical value of multiple AI tools via an AI marketplace.
The adoption of AI in radiology is increasing across healthcare services in general. deepc integrates into the hospital environment, streamlining the curation and onboarding effort, offering access to over 50 third-party AI solutions to enable adoption at scale. This means it can onboard AI tech into NHS hospitals that might otherwise be overlooked due to their geographic location.
BT’s collaboration with AXON Diagnostics aims to help the NHS reduce reliance on outsourcing, by empowering clinicians to work more effectively across regional networks. The digital platform, which has been described as “Netflix for doctors,” enables faster diagnosis and image sharing. Using a secure streaming service, it allows specialists located anywhere to access and report live diagnostic information, e.g. X-rays, MRI, CT scans, safely in seconds. This helps increase capacity across health services by connecting more clinicians and consultants across different locations.
Professor Sultan Mahmud, BT’s director of healthcare, said: “Offering faster diagnosis and helping reduce waiting times, our new digital diagnostics and AI services are designed to help ease some of the pressures facing doctors and nurses today. It’s part of our commitment to stand alongside the NHS, working with clinicians to help more UK Trusts reap the benefits of the latest technology – helping them do more with digital, without increasing their already heavy workload.”
BT’s research suggests the public are ready to embrace innovation if it will help enable faster diagnosis and treatment and allow doctors to clear the patient backlog, quicker, with two thirds (64%) believing technology is a worthwhile investment for the NHS.
According to BT’s latest research, improving the speed of diagnosis and treatment are the public’s top NHS priorities, with nine in 10 (91%) patients believing them to be the most important; making them as high a priority as the NHS remaining free at the point of entry (87%).
Dr Paul Bhogal, consultant interventional neuroradiologist and member of BT’s Clinical Advisory Board, commented: “When we talk about the need to bring new technology to the NHS, we’re not talking about replacing doctors and nurses. We’re talking about taking tools that are already a part of everyday life elsewhere and using them to make things quicker and easier for patients. BT’s new digital diagnostics and AI services will not only help connect NHS clinicians with patients faster and more efficiently, but they can also help with knowledge sharing, to plug some of the gaps where healthcare services need it most.”
Barry Clyde, founder & CTO at Axon Diagnostics, added: "Working in partnership with BT is an exciting stride towards revolutionising healthcare diagnostics. This partnership brings together cutting-edge technology and patient-centred innovation, ultimately enabling quicker and more accurate diagnoses. This digital transformation aligns perfectly with our commitment to enhancing healthcare access and outcomes."
