Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award (AI Award) is run by NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and NHSX (as part of NHS AI Lab). It will deploy £140 million over three years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies.
There have been two rounds of awards since the scheme launched in September 2020. The 42 winners of the first round competition were announced in December 2020, awarded a share of over £50 million. A total of 38 technologies awarded second round competition in June 2021 will share over £36 million.
The AI Award supports innovators and technologies across the development spectrum: from concept to initial NHS adoption and testing within clinical pathways. The following four support phases are available:
- Phase 1: Product and clinical feasibility, funding limit is up to £150,000;
- Phase 2: Product development and clinical evaluation, funding limit is uncapped, but typically range £500,000 - £1.5 million;
- Phase 3: Real-world testing, funding limit is uncapped, but typically range £500,000 - £1.5 million;
- Phase 4: Initial health system adoption, funding limit is uncapped, but typically range £1-7 million.
Five AI-based technologies awarded Phase 4:
- DERM (Skin Analytics Ltd) - analyses skin lesion images distinguishing between cancerous, pre-cancerous, and benign lesions;
- eHub (eConsult Health Ltd) - to intelligently triage and automate general practices (GP) e-consultation requests;
- Chest X-ray analysis (Behold.AI Technologies Ltd) - to fast-track the diagnosis of suspected lung cancer patients, offering them same-day CT; Patients with no abnormalities at chest X-rays will receive a diagnostic report in seconds;
- Paige prostate cancer diagnostic system (University of Oxford) - for interpretation of pathology sample images;
- Bone Health Solutions (Zebra Medical Vision) - analyses CT scan to catch undiagnosed spinal fractures, which can be a marker for osteoporosis.
Ten AI-based technologies awarded Phase 3:
- Wysa – an AI chatbot app that leverages evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT) to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and detect people experiencing severe mental health difficulties;
- Lenus chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Management Service - to analyze output from patients' daily monitoring and wearable devices to predict deterioration;
- DOLCE - clinical decision support software for an early lung cancer diagnosis;
- Open-source AI to augment and accelerate radiotherapy workflows – for differentiating between tumor and healthy tissue on cancer scans (called 'segmenting') before radiotherapy treatment;
- Analyzing breast screening X-rays - evaluating the AI potential for analyzing X-ray images of routine mammograms;
- Workforce deployment solutions - AI-led indoor location-based solutions to help transform and improve workforce efficiency in hospitals;
- ArtiQ.Spiro - to interpret and evaluate the spirometry test;
- qER – to analyze CT scans in patients with head injuries;
- Cogstack Natural Language Processing - AI-based clinical coding of medical records;
- CaRi-HEART - can detect and quantify the invisible signatures of inflammation in routine cardiac CT scans.
Furthermore, nine technologies awarded Phase 2, including ImageDx (analyzing cancer biopsy tissues), mySmartCOPD (analyzing data from myCOPD app), and 14 technologies awarded Phase 1.
See the full details here.
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