Aidence has won an Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Award to support the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) plans to reduce lung cancer mortality. We merited the award by showing that our AI-enabled image analysis application, Veye Lung Nodules, can improve early lung cancer detection, and validate and accelerate the use of AI in healthcare.
The AI award comes from a £140 million fund reserved for outstanding AI solutions that can contribute to the NHS Long-Term Plan. One of the goals set in this plan is to improve lung cancer prognosis by detecting 75% of all cancers at an early stage (1 or 2) by 2028. Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer worldwide, and the most expensive cancer in the UK at £2.4 billion each year.
Aidence’s submission proved that their AI solutions can increase the speed and accuracy of early lung cancer detection. We further demonstrated real-world ability to develop, certify and deploy AI-enabled clinical solutions at scale, including a track record of use at NHS trusts. Our first application, Veye Lung Nodules, is analysing thousands of chest CT scans each month across the UK and Europe. It is integrated into several NHS hospitals to detect, classify, and track the growth of potential lung cancers.
The award will fund the adoption of Veye Lung Nodules in NHS sites which will be announced shortly. The award will also support each site in evaluating the efficiency and performance of the Veye Lung Nodules in clinical use, both in screening and routine practice. The expectation is that Veye will positively impact patient outcomes while contributing to cost reduction.
Aidence is on a path to extend its technology to support lung cancer diagnosis and treatment response, working together with several academic sites and NHS trusts.
Jeroen van Duffelen, Aidence Co-founder and CBO, said:
“We’re looking forward to working with the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), the NHS and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to validate and accelerate the use of AI in the fight against lung cancer. At Aidence, we know AI has tremendous value in clinical practice, and we believe AI-enabled oncology pathways can transform cancer care.”
Lizzie Barclay, Aidence Medical Director and former NHS doctor, added:
“Being selected for the award is a vote of confidence in Aidence’s capability to develop and scale clinically useful AI medical solutions. We are grateful to the NHS and to the physicians and experts who wrote letters of support for our application.”
The call for the first AI award has seen over 530 applications across its four phases.
About the AI in Health and Care Award
The AI in Health and Care Award aims to benefit patients by combining the power of artificial intelligence with the expertise of the NHS to improve health and care outcomes.
The award is making £140 million available over three years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of technologies most likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long-Term Plan. Four phases of the award are available to support AI solutions from initial feasibility to evaluation within NHS and social care settings.
The award is a competitive process run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) as part of the NHS AI Lab, in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Phase 4 is intended to identify AI technologies that need more evidence to merit large-scale commissioning or deployment. The AAC will work with NHS sites to support their adoption of these technologies, and stress test and evaluate them within routine clinical or operational pathways to determine their efficacy and accuracy, and clinical and economic impact.
*Note: Veye Lung Nodules was known as Veye Chest at the time of the award.
