University College London Hospitals (UCLH), one of the largest hospitals in London, announced today that it will recruit artificial intelligence to carry out some tasks currently undertaken by doctors and nurses, with the goal of improving emergency room admittance rates, follow-up appointment attendance, and speed for routine tests. Machine learning algorithms supplied by the Alan Turing Institute will pore over admittance data to track how doctors and patients move through the hospital and identify potential bottlenecks. According to a March survey published by the U.K.'s National Health Service, just 76.4 percent of patients requiring urgent care at London hospitals were treated within four hours -- the lowest proportion since 2010, when records began. UCLH CEO Marvel Levi told the Guardian that a future version of the software might prioritize patients based on the severity of their symptom, such as fast-tracking a person suffering from abdominal pain who is likely to have appendicitis, kidney disease, or another critical ailment. A second project, which was developed by UCLH clinical research associate Parashkev Nachev, will flag patients who are most likely to miss appointments, taking into account factors such as age, address, and weather conditions, and will automatically text reminders or even reschedule visits.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of Britain's biggest health trusts, has partnered The Alan Turing Institute, a body that collects AI expertise of British universities, to automate tasks ranging from reading CT scans for cancer to prioritising patients at the emergency department, The Guardian reported. NHS is England's National Health Service. It is a health service that everybody in the UK can use. "Machines will never replace doctors, but the use of data, expertise and technology can radically change how we manage our services – for the better," Professor Marcel Levi, chief executive of University College London Hospitals, was quoted as saying. According to the report, the two bodies have signed an artificial-intelligence agreement for three years.

Surgeons have praised the pioneering use of robots in saving a record number of men from one of the UK's deadliest cancers. The £1 million machines, known as Da Vinci robots, have performed life-saving surgery at University College London Hospitals on more than 500 men with advanced prostate cancer. Surgeons credit them with being quicker, safer and the procedures have fewer side effects than existing treatments in a move that has been described as a'game changer'. Many men delay prostate cancer treatment over fears they may suffer incurable erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Prostate cancer is the most common form of the disease in men and the second biggest killer in men after lung cancer, causing 11,300 UK deaths a year. An internal 3D camera displays instantaneous images to the surgeon's high-definition console David Ferris, a Londoner with'aggressive' prostate cancer underwent robotic surgery to remove his prostate at University Collage London Hospital carried out by consultant urological surgeon Greg Shaw'It gives men their lives back after prostate cancer' Professor John Kelly, clinical lead for urology at University College London Hospitals at Westmoreland Street hospital, said: 'Although [conventional] surgery removes the cancerous tumour, patients are left with life-changing after-effects like incontinence and impotence, which can be devastating.