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An Oxford project using artificial intelligence to develop digital triage tools for mental health clinicians (CHRONOS) is one of 38 projects support by the second wave of the NHS AI Lab's AI in Health and Care Award.

Dr Andrey Kormilitzin, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, said:

 

'CHRONOS will use AI technology to examine historical, anonymised medical notes to learn how care teams make decisions about treatment for individual patients. It will be capable of processing the long, detailed descriptions found in medical records to capture a “fingerprint” of an individual’s difficulties, symptoms and needs over time. CHRONOS will use this to suggest a treatment pathway alongside an explanation of its suggestion'.

The Award means that the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) (a partnership between the University of Oxford and the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust) will be able to develop digital tools to make it easier for clinicians in secondary mental health care to rapidly identify the most appropriate treatments for their patients. This is the first time a mental health project has received the AI Award.

Professor Andrea Cipriani, PI on the project, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, said:

 

'We are delighted to be one of the recipients of the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award and look forward to developing CHRONOS to bring faster and more effective treatment to mental health patients in the NHS.'

The 38 trailblazing projects are backed by NHSX and the Accelerated Access Collaborative.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, said:

 

'AI has the potential to completely revolutionise every part of how we approach healthcare, from how we diagnose diseases and the speed at which our doctors and nurses deliver treatments to how we support people’s mental health. The 38 projects we are backing reflect the UK’s trailblazing approach to innovation in the healthcare sector, and could help us take a leap forward in the quality of care and the speed of disease diagnoses and treatment in the NHS. Confronted with this global pandemic, our tech sector has risen to the challenge and upended how we do things through innovations to support people to test from home, complete remote consultations and diagnose issues safely.'

The Oxford project's team members include:

  • Professor Andrea Cipriani (Principal Investigator)
  • Dr Dan Joyce (Co-Investigator)
  • Dr Andrey Kormilitzin (Co-Investigator
  • Julia Harmer-Hunt (Patient and Public Involvement Co-Investigator)
  • Associate Professor Alejo Nevado-Holgado (Co-Investigator)
  • Dr Anthony James (Co-Investigator)

For more information about the NIHR Oxford Health BRC and to read the full press release.