NHS to use AI to help make decisions about Somerset patients
Artificial intelligence could soon be used to help the NHS make decisions around managing patient numbers in part of Somerset.
The Integrated Care Board covering Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire which is in charge of arranging health services to meet people’s needs is getting new software to track patient numbers which will use AI to make predictions.
Faculty AI took over providing the NHS body with their urgent and emergency dashboard from previous provider Alamac at the start of April. The dashboard shows medical staff live information such as how many people are in A&E and how long they are waiting for triage.
The AI company will add features into the system to visualise — and use AI to forecast — the flow of patients though the hospitals and NHS services in the area, to show the impact of decisions, and to visualise and estimate harm that could occur to people.
It is hoped that using AI will mean the consequences of decisions can be understood before the decisions are taken.
At a meeting of the integrated care board on April 6, Deborah El-Sayed, the board’s director of transformation and chief digital information officer said: “It’s not just about understanding the activity across the system, it’s about understanding what’s happening for people.”
Ms El-Sayed said: “[Clinical lead] Kiaran Flanagan’s been working on an approach on how we start to indicate harm through data dashboards, et cetera, but being able to understand whats going on across the system and trying to be able to understand not just the harm that may be happening in the ambulances waiting, but also the harm that when we put someone into a bed we can’t get them home […], or the harm that’s been caused because someone went into a hospital in the first place who could’ve been supported in the community.”
She added that she had been told: “Our clinicians at the front line […] are really excited about this landing. They are connected to it. They see not just the depiction of harm but the whole of care traffic control, being able to game change the way in which they think about resourcing.”
An email with a link to the new system had been sent to members of the board before the meeting, but it was feared the email had been automatically identified as spam.
References
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