Can NHS be the ‘GOOGLE’ in Clinical Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence? Watford, Hertfordshire – We are pleased to inform you that there was a conference of London Artificial Intelligence Group on clinical artificial intelligence at Watford, Hertfordshire on the 19th May 2019. About 60 delegates participated in the meeting from seven countries. Around one-third of the conference delegates were renowned clinicians from various NHS trust such as Bart’s health NHS, Sunderland Royal NHS, Northwick Park & St Mark’s NHS, Ealing Hospital NHS, Imperial College London, West Virginia University, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, and many other institutes throughout the world. Rest of the participants in the conference were experts in artificial intelligence, machine learning, UI/UX developers, software designers, software developers, software builders, software testers and healthcare management consultants. Representatives of the Conservative party, Liberal Democrat and Labour party also participated in the meeting. The chief guests of the function were Lord R Swinfen, Professor Shafi Ahmed, from Royal London NHS and Prof V K Raju, a world-renowned ophthalmologist from the West Virginia University.
The main focus of the discussion was to discuss if the NHS has the potential to become Google in the field of clinical artificial intelligence. The potential of the NHS data and talent to develop clinical artificial intelligence matrix to digitalise and transform the healthcare was articulated in the meeting. The potential benefits discussed include maximise the clinical benefits to the patient, reduce the patient inconvenience, minimise the medical and healthcare errors, improve patient and staff safety at workplace, reduce the expenditure, improve the efficiency, develop workflow automation, develop friendly working environment, maximise the innovation potential of NHS and promote the ethical practice of medicine. The delegates shared various points on the practical steps and strategies to reduce the fear-mongering amongst the general public, e.g. unemployment, data security and ethical issues where are also part of the discussion.
Another critical point of discussion was how we to create awareness about clinical artificial intelligence system amongst clinicians and healthcare workers. It was further agreed to form a collaborative platform/group to share ideas and to collaborate to create an artificial intelligence matrix. There were discussion and agreement on developing a joint minimum manifesto. How the group will communicate to the government and regulatory bodies to facilitate the implementation of the new age digital technologies at the workplace was also discussed.
London Artificial Intelligence Group is the informal name of this group of professionals until its incorporation. Dr Aswini Misro hosted the meeting. Any questions or clarifications regarding this can be addressed to him at his email address draswini@gmail.com.