Behold.ai, a regulated, autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) diagnostics company announced today that it has been awarded Government funding in the latest round of the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award. The Award will fund the set-up of two clinical trials sites for its red dot® lung cancer detection computing platform, in NHS radiology departments, allowing the company to collect further data and support future national roll-out.
Behold.ai was one of five winners for Phase 4 of the Award to support initial national adoption. It is also one of 38 organisations to receive funding to support the advancement and widespread use of AI technologies as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. Its red dot® algorithm looks to fast-track lung cancer patients who have received an irregular chest x-ray for a CAT (CT) scan, reducing the approximate wait time from 24 days to as little as one hour and 40 minutes.1 Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK and is the single largest cause of cancer-related deaths.2
“This is an important milestone in our journey and will allow us to gain further NHS evidence to support this new form of diagnostic medicine which is already available for use,” said Simon Rasalingham, CEO and Chairman of Behold.ai. “Our peer reviewed paper published this month has shown that we can combine the power of AI and clinician expertise to create a ‘super-human’ clinician, while increasing capacity and reducing costs. At behold.ai we are committed to bringing innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes through faster diagnosis and earlier treatment.”
The behold.ai algorithm has been developed using more than 150,000 example images, all of which have been reviewed and reported by highly experienced consultant radiology clinicians in order to shape accurate decision making.
The AI Award is making £140 million available over four years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI technologies. The Award aims to increase the impact of AI-driven technologies to help solve clinical and operational challenges across the NHS and care settings. It will speed up the most promising technologies through the regulatory process by building an evidence base to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of AI-driven technologies in health and social care.
-ENDS-
About behold.ai
Behold.ai utilise cutting-edge science to pioneer new forms of diagnostic medicine; this innovative approach to healthcare is a step change in the treatment and prevention of diseases, delivering benefits to patients across the NHS today.
Behold.ai provides artificial intelligence, through its regulated red dot® cognitive computing platform, to radiology departments. Behold.ai’s technology augments the expertise of radiologists to enable them to report with greater clinical accuracy, faster and more safely than they could before. This revolutionary combination helps to deliver greater performance in radiology reporting at a fraction of the price of outsourced reporting.
The behold.ai algorithm has been developed using more than 150,000 example images, all of which have been reviewed and reported by highly experienced consultant radiology clinicians in order to shape accurate decision making. The red dot® prioritisation platform is capable of sorting images into normal and abnormal categories in less than 30 seconds post image acquisition.
About the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award
The Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award is one of the NHS AI Lab programmes, led by NHSX. The competitive award scheme is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
NHSX is a joint unit of teams from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement, driving forward the digital transformation of health and social care. www.nhsx.nhs.uk
The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and NHS bodies, working together to streamline the adoption of new innovations in healthcare. www.england.nhs.uk/aac
The National Institute for Health and Research (NIHR) provides the people, facilities, and technology that enable research to thrive. www.nihr.ac.uk
References
1 Dartford and Gravesham NHS Hospital Trust
2 C. R. Smittenaar, K. A. Petersen, K. Stewart, and N. Moitt, “Cancer incidence and mortality projections in the UK until 2035,” Br. J. Cancer, 2016, doi: 10.1038/bjc.2016.304