NHS Grampian the first healthcare provider in the UK to evaluate Annalise Enterprise

NHS Grampian is the first healthcare provider in the UK to trial Annalise Enterprise’s chest X-ray AI module (Annalise CXR) and triage solution, to evaluate the potential to speed-up the diagnosis of chest problems including lung cancer.

The project, led by the health board’s Innovation Hub, will see NHS Grampian radiologists and clinicians evaluate Annalise CXR at 12 sites in Eastern Scotland including Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Woodend Hospital and Dr Gray’s Hospital, Elgin.

The Annalise CXR AI model was trained on over 800,000 unique images from more than 280,000 patients. Currently NHS Grampian generates roughly 350,000 medical images a year, with 60,000 of these being chest x-rays.

Dr Andrew Keen, clinical lead for innovation, at NHS Grampian, said: “The NHS has significant well-documented challenges in delivering high quality care in a timely manner. COVID-19 has compounded this situation and, in some cases, increased waiting times.

“As an organisation, NHS Grampian is committed to co-developing and robustly evaluating potential, innovative solutions to improve and speed up our services”.

Dr Keen added he hoped the technology would positively impact on staff and patient diagnosis.  He said: “We are hugely excited to partner with annalise.ai and especially eager to learn the extent to which their CXR product can reduce the time to lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. With the ability to prioritise the radiological images, the AI will flag chest x-rays that have clinical findings suggestive of cancer and push these automatically to the top of the virtual pile for specialised radiologist reporting.

Dr Struan Wilkie, Consultant Radiologist and clinical lead for radiology IT at NHS Grampian, said: “annalise.ai is regarded as one of the top AI companies globally and have well-tested products in Australia.  Aberdeen and NHS Grampian have been at the forefront of innovation in the history of medical imaging, this is the next evolutionary step.”

Dimitry Tran – CEO and Co-Founder of annalise.ai said:

“Annalise CXR is the most comprehensive AI-driven CXR clinical interpretation support tool on the market.  We have years of experience across healthcare startups, international hospital operations and increasing the quality and accessibility of healthcare, especially in settings such as the NHS.  This technology offers peace of mind for clinicians and better, faster decisions for patients and we are thrilled to be working with NHS Grampian on this project.”