Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential use of the supercomputer Isambard-AI in processing the medical scans of cancer patients.

The 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan will help the National Health Service become the most artificial intelligence (AI) ready healthcare system in the world. While no assessment has yet been made of the potential use of Isambard-AI in processing the medical scans of cancer patients, the Government is fully committed to the ‘scan-pilot-scale’ approach set out in Matt Clifford’s AI Opportunities Action Plan published earlier this year, so that we can ensure AI is deployed in the critical areas where the technology can support better health outcomes.

The Government has already had success with the ‘scan-pilot-scale’ approach as part of the £113 million AI awards, which provided funding for a number of technologies that support cancer diagnosis. In addition, the £21 million AI diagnostic fund is supporting the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest x-ray and chest computed tomography scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England. Funding is being provided to 12 imaging networks, which cover 67 out of a total of 137 acute and specialist trusts across all seven regions of England.