University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect lung cancer at an early stage through the NHS England (NHSE) Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) pilot. The AI-powered innovation, Veye Lung Nodules, is provided by Aidence.
The Southampton Targeted Lung Health Checks resumed in the city at the end of August, after a pause due to the covid-19 pandemic. The service aims to find any signs of a lung condition at an earlier stage, offering patients better treatment options and outcomes. The University Hospital Southampton is one of the first sites to acknowledge the need for technological solutions to support radiologists with the additional workload created by the lung cancer screening.
Dr James Shambrook, Consultant Cardiothoracic Radiologist at University Hospital Southampton and Radiology Lead for the Southampton Targeted Lung Health Checks, said:
“Healthcare is changing and we want to drive this change by exploring the opportunities of AI solutions and being a part of their development. Scale and precision are of utmost importance for making the Lung Health Check programme a success, and we see Aidence as a valuable partner for the years to come.”
Aidence’s Veye Lung Nodules is a certified AI solution for pulmonary nodule management on chest CT scans. Built upon input from radiologists, Veye Lung Nodules automatically detects, classifies and tracks the growth of lung nodules, freeing up physicians’ time to focus on the more complex cases.
Lizzie Barclay, MBChB, Medical Director at Aidence, added:
“We are thrilled to collaborate with healthcare professionals involved in the TLHC programmes – their insights are crucial for our ongoing development of clinically relevant AI-solutions which meet the needs of radiologists, and integrate seamlessly into their pre-existing workflows.”
Dr James Shambrook will talk about the role of AI in developing the lung health check programme during the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) Annual Congress on November 2nd. For more information, refer to this page.
Aidence’s collaboration with University Hospital Southampton was picked for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Regulatory Sandbox round 2, ‘Machine learning (AI) and its use in Radiology, Pathology and other similar diagnostics’. The aim is to support the development of future frameworks to implement safe and effective AI solutions.
About the NHS England Targeted Lung Health Checks
The NELSON study published earlier this year reconfirmed that CT screening reduces lung cancer mortality. NHS England’s Targeted Lung Health Checks (TLHC) projects are targeting approximately 600,000 people across 10 areas in England, aiming to detect approximately 3,400 cancers and save hundreds of lives over the coming four years.
