Public Funding for Elaitra Ltd

Before COVID-19, one in eight women got breast cancer and it was the top cancer killer of women. During the pandemic, screening backlogs swelled to 1,500,000 women, which is one year's screening volume and may take years to normalise. Breast Cancer Now, a UK charity, estimates "around 12,000 people in the UK could be living with undiagnosed breast cancer due to the impact of the pandemic on breast screening services and fewer women being referred to specialists with possible symptoms of the disease since March 2020." (October 2021) This is exacerbated by the workforce crisis in the NHS with breast radiology one of the worst hit. Yet the NHS's and Cancer Research UK's ambition is to detect 75% of cancers in stages I & II, while detection is currently 55%. Breast cancer is one of the biggest stage III & IV contributors by number so is a focus area. The London AI Centre, Elaitra and King's College Hospital (KCH) developing AI tools to help meet that target. The team, consisting of 9 PhDs and medical doctors, is testing its first AI tool which helps radiologists read 3D breast scans faster and more accurately. It is a GPS for medical images, letting radiologists fly through images to find and examine suspicious tissue. It augments radiologists' skills rather than replacing humans. It is being tested at KCH and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital and, if successful, will be available to the NHS in February.

"The London Medical Imaging & Artificial Intelligence Centre for Value-Based Healthcare will improve NHS patient care and health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and support the growth of companies, supporting the economy. It will do this by applying artificial intelligence technologies to medical imaging (for example MRI scans, CT scans PET scans and ultrasound). Artificial intelligence will enable faster and earlier diagnosis, automation of reporting, improved patient screening for disease, and identification of the best treatment for each person. We will create a powerful, dynamic Centre bringing together industry, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), world-leading researchers, healthcare professionals covering many areas of practice, and experts in data science/governance. The Centre is a collaboration between three excellent universities (King's, Imperial and QMUL), four leading NHS Trusts (Guy's & St Thomas', King's College Hospital, South London & the Maudsley and Barts Health), multinational industry (Siemens, NVIDIA, IBM, GSK), 10 UK-based SMEs and the Health Innovation Network. The Centre will have a physical hub embedded in St Thomas' Hospital, in the heart of one of the UK's top-performing NHS Trusts with specialist services and one of the UK's largest critical care units. It will be underpinned by the existing Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering, a flagship investment in medical imaging. The Centre will deliver well-governed, controlled access to high-quality NHS imaging and patient data for academic researchers, SMEs and industry partners. This will be done while preserving patient privacy as the first requirement. We will add dedicated expertise in health economics & statistics, care pathway design and clinical implementation to create an environment where products can be created and tested. Recognising this is a new development in healthcare, patients, the wider public and policy makers will all have opportunities to input and shape priorities for the Centre. The Centre will drive progress through a selection of 12 exemplar projects, specifically chosen, with public input, to illustrate the breadth of opportunity-- covering early life (fetal diagnosis) to old age (dementia), various organ systems including heart, brain and lungs, and diseases such as heart failure, headache, congenital conditions and cancer. In addition to the direct benefits of the Centre, this activity will act as a beacon to attract multinational companies, venture capital investment and AI talent from across the world, creating jobs, broader economic benefit and contributing to the UK's prosperity."