Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to identify new uses for AI in the public sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK government is taking a leading role promoting ethical, safe and responsible adoption of AI, as illustrated by our leadership of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park last week. This includes the use of AI to improve public services and boost public sector productivity.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is looking to identify new uses for AI in the public sector. Examples include: the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission giving £100 million of funding to capitalise on AI’s game-changing potential in healthcare; the Department for Education providing up to £2million to Oak National Academy to improve and expand Artificial Intelligence tools for teachers; the Department of Health and Social Care using AI to identify language indicating mental distress in public social media posts and signposting people to a NHS-endorsed mental health service; and the Royal Navy using AI to connect with potential recruits faster through an AI-driven virtual recruiter.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide details of the event planned by his Department with clinicians and data scientists on artificial intelligence.
Answered by Will Quince
An NHS England-led task and finish group are working with the No.10 Downing Street Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Applied Mathematics Team, who are carrying out analysis of collections of prose-based safety reports. On 21 August 2023, a roundtable event was held at Downing Street with clinical experts involving discussions on the use of AI and machine learning in the analysis of maternity ward-based patient safety incident reports, which has successfully produced a model for analysis.
Over the coming months, NHS England will explore whether this model can be applied to other data rich maternity safety reports as a means of delivering new insights on potential safety signals for informing the Perinatal Quality Surveillance Model.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the artificial intelligence (AI) applications funded to date under the NHS AI Lab's AI in Health and Care Awards; and how much each developer has received to date.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The AI in Health and Care Award has provided £123 million to 86 AI technologies over three funding rounds. The Award is accelerating the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
These are live in more than 340 primary care networks and 40% of National Health Service acute trusts in England. The AI solutions are helping patients by supporting stroke diagnosis, cancer screening, cardiovascular monitoring and managing disease at home.
The AI in Health and Care Award will not be considering any more funding applications, and all projects are set to complete either before or by 2025. The full list of the 86 projects and the developers granted funding from the AI in Health and Care Award is available in an online-only format on NHS England’s website.
The funding allocated to projects that applied in the first two funding rounds is available in an online-only format at the Contracts Finder on GOV.uk. The funding provided to the nine projects for round three will be made available on the same website later this year.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the impact of the shortfall in clinical radiology consultants in the South East region on (a) diagnostic waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) staff wellbeing in the region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South East region, local systems are taking steps to address diagnostic waiting times, patient outcomes and staff wellbeing in the area. These include initiatives such as upskilling other staff such as radiographers to undertake advanced practice; investing over £40 million in digital infrastructure while working with industry partners around artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions; rolling out the i-refer system to support general practitioners (GPs) to appropriately refer for imaging tests; creating imaging networks to enable departments to provide mutual support and aid across the region.
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years including increasing the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025. This investment will support the ambition for 75% of patients with an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. This is in line with to NHS Long Term Plan ambitions on early diagnosis and improving patient outcomes.
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and NHS England have put in place a wide ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is to minimise the potential impact of the shortfall of clinical oncology consultants on (a) diagnostic waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) staff wellbeing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South East region, local systems are taking steps to address diagnostic waiting times, patient outcomes and staff wellbeing in the area. These include initiatives such as upskilling other staff such as radiographers to undertake advanced practice; investing over £40 million in digital infrastructure while working with industry partners around artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions; rolling out the i-refer system to support general practitioners (GPs) to appropriately refer for imaging tests; creating imaging networks to enable departments to provide mutual support and aid across the region.
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years including increasing the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025. This investment will support the ambition for 75% of patients with an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. This is in line with to NHS Long Term Plan ambitions on early diagnosis and improving patient outcomes.
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and NHS England have put in place a wide ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to exploit artificial intelligence in radiotherapy treatment services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has provided £123 million to 86 artificial intelligence (AI) technologies through the Health and Care Award. The Award is accelerating the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Two of these AI technologies, Mirada Medical and project OSAIRIS, specialise in assisting clinicians with segmenting radiotherapy scans. This process, which is currently done by hand by clinicians, outlines healthy organs so they can be avoided during radiotherapy treatment. These technologies have been testing the feasibility of AI tools that could automatically identify healthy organs and segment scans. This could speed up the segmentation process and help patients start radiotherapy treatment sooner and reduce workloads for clinicians.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to commission research on the potential impact of artificial intelligence on (a) diagnostics, (b) health economics and (c) clinicians' workloads.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2017, the Department has invested £148 million through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and an additional £123 million through the AI in Health and Care Award to research artificial intelligence in healthcare. This is funding research into the potential impact of artificial intelligence on diagnosis and treatment for major conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and research into how the technology can be used to improve NHS services and reduce the burden of clinicians’ workloads.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 166295 on Mental Health Services: Artificial Intelligence, how much of the £123 million provided for AI technologies will be designated for the development of AI technologies for mental health treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab is supporting the testing and evaluations of the most promising AI technologies that can meet the needs of the NHS Long Term Plan through the AI in Health and Care Award. As part of the Award, £1,933,883 has been awarded to projects related to mental health.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 166295 on Mental Health Services: Artificial Intelligence, when he plans to publish the results of the app testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As part of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Award, the National Health Service AI Lab is funding the first real world testing of the WYSA, a digital health app that uses an AI chatbot, and a series of self-care exercises, to provide mental health support and help people develop strategies to manage their mental health. The results from the project are due in August 2023.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of AI therapeutics for mental health treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Award has provided £123 million to 86 AI technologies. The Award was created to accelerate the testing and evaluation of some of the most promising AI technologies that can support clinicians in stroke diagnosis, cancer screening, cardiovascular monitoring and managing mental health conditions.
One such technology funded by the Department’s AI in Health and Care Award is Wysa, a digital health app that uses an AI chatbot and a series of self-care exercises to provide mental health support and help people develop strategies to manage their mental health.
The app is being tested to see if it can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in people who are referred to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies as well as help identify people who are experiencing severe mental health difficulties so they can be provided with additional support.