Health Education England publishes roadmap for use of AI in the NHS

Health Education England (HEE) has released the first-ever roadmap outlining the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and its impact on the healthcare workforce.

The report analyses the implementation of AI and data-driven technologies in the NHS, their adoption rate, and the impact on staff. The roadmap aims to provide insight to healthcare leaders into AI policy, education, regulation, innovation, digital transformation, and workforce strategy. The report examines the timeframe for AI projects’ implementation, the distribution of AI technology in clinical areas and the workforce, the different uses of AI in healthcare, and the effects on staff and patients.

Dr Hatim Abdulhussein, clinical lead for the Digital, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technologies in Education (DART-Ed) programme at HEE, states that the AI roadmap is a valuable asset in understanding the AI and data-driven healthcare landscape and its implications on staff and learners. The report is a collaborative effort between Unity Insights, NICE, NHS AI Lab, and the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC). The report also builds on the Topol review, providing a framework to identify and classify AI technology in healthcare.

The report finds that diagnostic technology, such as those used in imaging, pathology, and endoscopy, accounts for the most significant proportion of AI use in healthcare (34% share), followed by automation/service efficiency, P4 medicine, remote monitoring, and therapeutic. Of the 56 technologies estimated for large-scale deployment within a year, 77% are for use in secondary care, 23% for use in primary care, and 7% for use in community care. A total of 155 workforce groups, across 67 clinical areas, use AI tech identified by HEE, with medics in clinical radiology and general practice being the most affected, as well as non-clinical admin staff.

Abdulhussein highlights the importance of achieving transformation through emerging technology to improve patient care and scalability throughout the country, and the roadmap’s insights will focus efforts on education and training. The UK government recently unveiled its ten-year national plan to tackle cancer, including an increased use of AI and machine learning in NHS healthcare. England is also trialling a new approach to the ethical adoption of AI in healthcare.