NHS hopes new artificial intelligence software will be able to spot damage in heart scans in seconds

Artificial intelligence software is poised to drastically slash NHS cardiology waiting lists and give heart patients a faster diagnosis. The program can carry out complicated measurements in less than a minute that normally take doctors about 20 minutes. Patients with heart problems usually undergo MRI scans to determine how enlarged the chambers of the organ are – a sign that it is under strain – and whether they will need invasive surgery or can be treated with medication. The scan captures about ten different images of the heart, each from a slightly different angle, to create a full picture. Doctors then have to print out these scans and painstakingly measure the size of the chambers by physically drawing on them.