£2.5m trial of AI system to help patients at risk of lung failure

Doctors are turning to artificial intelligence in a bid to boost survival rates for the sickest NHS patients. Researchers at Imperial College London are to trial a device at the Royal Brompton hospital, in Chelsea, that will aim to reduce the risk to patients on ventilators in intensive care units. Four in five ICU patients require ventilation to help them breathe but there is a danger of over-inflating the lungs, causing their condition to deteriorate and leading to fatal lung failure. About a quarter of ventilated patients already have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) -- placing them at higher risk of effectively drowning. The £2.5 million study, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme, will use software that controls the amount of air on a breath-by-breath basis -- and which can sound an alert if the patient's lungs start deteriorating.