Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, along with artificial intelligence firm Rainbird, have developed a tool to assess the risk of frontline workers being exposed to Covid-19. The tool uses intelligent automation, a combination of robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI), to evaluate a range of factors including age, health history, cultural/religious beliefs, disability and pregnancy. It also factors in the impact of Covid-19 on Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups. According to a report by Public Health England, a disproportionate number of BAME people have died from Covid-19, with people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other Black ethnicity having between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to White British. As a result, Public Health England has called for "culturally competent" risk assessment tools for key workers.

The NHS has started trials of a machine-learning system designed to help hospitals in England anticipate the demand on resources caused by COVID-19. The COVID-19 Capacity Planning and System (CPAS) is being piloted at four acute hospitals in England to demonstrate whether it can help the NHS predict the demand for equipment like ICU beds and ventilators. If successful, CPAS will be rolled out nationally. From cancelled conferences to disrupted supply chains, not a corner of the global economy is immune to the spread of COVID-19. NHS Digital told ZDNet the initiative marked the "first time any project of this scale and scope using machine learning has been rolled out in the NHS."

Trials have begun of a system that will use machine learning to help predict the upcoming demand for intensive care (ICU) beds and ventilators needed to treat patients with COVID-19 at individual hospitals and across regions in England. The COVID 19 Capacity Planning and Analysis System (CPAS), developed by NHS Digital data scientists and a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, and using data from Public Health England, will support hospitals to plan more accurately and help ensure that resources are deployed to best effect to support COVID-19 throughout the NHS. The first stage alpha trials began this week at four hospitals, aiming to demonstrate the relative accuracy of the system and fine tune it to best meet the needs of hospitals. "With the pressure being placed on intensive care by the current coronavirus pandemic it is essential to be able to predict demand for critical care beds, equipment and staff,"says NHS Digital Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Benger. "CPAS allows individual hospitals to plan ahead, ensuring they can give the best care to every patient. At the same time, the wider NHS can ensure that the ventilators, other equipment and drugs that each intensive care unit will need are in place at exactly the time they are required. In the longer term, it is hoped that CPAS can be used to predict hospital length of hospital stay, discharge planning and wider intensive care demand in the time that will come after the pandemic."

Eyenuk, Inc., a global artificial intelligence (AI) medical technology and services company and the leader in real-world applications for AI Eye Screening, announced that it has successfully fulfilled the contract awarded by Public Health England (PHE) to use Eyenuk's EyeArt AI Eye Screening System to grade 60,000 patient image sets from 6 different National Health Service (NHS) Diabetic Eye Screening Programmes in England. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a vision-threatening complication of diabetes and a leading cause of preventable vision loss globally.1 In England, an estimated 4.6 million are living with diabetes, one-third of whom are at risk of developing DR. Diabetes has become a growing health concern as the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the U.K. has more than doubled in the last 20 years.2 The U.K. has been leading the world in diabetic retinopathy screening, achieving patient uptake rates of over 80% (screening nearly 2.5 million diabetes patients annually),3 as compared with most parts of the world where typically less than half of diabetes patients receive annual eye screening.4 As a result, diabetic retinopathy is no longer the leading cause of blindness in the working age group in England.5

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Eyenuk, Inc., a global artificial intelligence (AI) medical technology and services company and the leader in real-world applications for AI Eye Screening, announced that it has successfully fulfilled the contract awarded by Public Health England (PHE) to use Eyenuk's EyeArt AI Eye Screening System to grade 60,000 patient image sets from 6 different National Health Service (NHS) Diabetic Eye Screening Programmes in England. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a vision-threatening complication of diabetes and a leading cause of preventable vision loss globally.1 In England, an estimated 4.6 million are living with diabetes, one-third of whom are at risk of developing DR. Diabetes has become a growing health concern as the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the U.K. has more than doubled in the last 20 years.2 The U.K. has been leading the world in diabetic retinopathy screening, achieving patient uptake rates of over 80% (screening nearly 2.5 million diabetes patients annually),3 as compared with most parts of the world where typically less than half of diabetes patients receive annual eye screening.4 As a result, diabetic retinopathy is no longer the leading cause of blindness in the working age group in England.5

Syphilis might be more commonly associated with centuries past. But it's been on the rise for the past decade in England, with more cases last year than in any year since 1949. The disease was, in effect, eradicated in the UK in the mid-80s only to re-emerge around 1999. BBC Reality Check wanted to know why this ancient disease is rearing its head in England in the 21st Century. Syphilis is a bacterial infection that can be treated with antibiotics.

A breast cancer screening error affecting 450,000 women may have led to hundreds of lives being cut short, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed. Hunt said that a computer algorithm failure dating back to 2009 had meant that many women aged 68 to 71 were not invited to their final routine screening. It is not known whether any delay in diagnosis resulted in avoidable death, but it is estimated that between 135 and 270 women had their lives shortened as a result, he said. The issue was first brought to the attention of the Department of Health and Social Care in January, but was initially thought to pose a "limited" risk to patients. It was escalated to ministers in March by Public Health England (PHE), with the Government told the error should not be made public to ensure existing screening services were not overwhelmed.

For Elon Musk, the term artificial intelligence conjures apocalyptic scenarios of autonomous robots wreaking destruction in a world dominated by hyper-intelligent machines. Stephen Hawking foresees a future in which smart machines replace sluggish humans across a range of activities, driving million...

For Elon Musk, the term artificial intelligence conjures apocalyptic scenarios of autonomous robots wreaking destruction in a world dominated by hyper-intelligent machines. Stephen Hawking foresees a future in which smart machines replace sluggish humans across a range of activities, driving millions out of work. Last month Bill Gates, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, imagined a gentler future – one with longer holidays and more free time. "The purpose of humanity is not just to sit behind a counter and sell things, "he said. We can all speculate about the future.

The first of the digital GP services to face a CQC inspection has been given a provisional clean bill of health, with the service provided via a mobile app deemed "safe". A draft Care Quality Commission inspection report on Salford Quays, Manchester, also known as Dr Now, has been released by the company. The draft report found the service provided "safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations". Dr Now is one of two private digital healthcare providers, along with Babylon Health, that the CQC has inspected as part of an "independent health" pilot. As reported by Digital Health News earlier this week, by April next year the CQC plans to roll out a more focused regulatory regime for the growing number of digital healthcare services, many of them run by companies charging for private access to NHS doctors.