OUH AI projects receive national funding for research

Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) is taking a leading role in several of the schemes, which have been awarded funding by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of an £8 million investment to support artificial intelligence (AI) projects aimed at reducing NHS waiting times and improving patient care.

The winning projects include SAMURAI-CT, led by the Oxford Clinical Artificial Intelligence Research (OxCAIR) team at OUH, and SMART-XR, for which OUH is the lead site and sponsor.

Both studies form part of a wider Oxford-led effort to build a comprehensive platform for evaluating AI technologies in clinical settings.

Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and chief executive of the NIHR, said: “This important investment in AI and innovation will cut NHS waiting times, fast-tracking diagnoses and ensuring patients receive more accessible, efficient and high-quality care.”

SAMURAI-CT will investigate whether AI-assisted interpretation of head CT scans in emergency departments can help clinicians identify urgent abnormalities in the brain more quickly, ultimately improving patient flow and reducing delays.

SMART-XR will examine the safety and effectiveness of autonomous AI reporting of chest X-rays as a means to reduce clinician workload.

Despite significant progress in AI technology, there is still a need to generate robust evidence of its effectiveness in real-world clinical practice.

Dr Alex Novak, co-director of OxCAIR, said: “The studies we are undertaking look at all aspects of the use of AI in healthcare – from establishing the necessary ethical, governance and data infrastructure, to evaluating how AI affects the performance of clinicians or assessing the real-world clinical impact of AI systems in routine practice.

“Together, they will provide a comprehensive framework for generating the evidence required for the safe, effective and scalable adoption of AI across healthcare.

“They will also explore how AI can be used not simply as a diagnostic tool, but as a means of transforming clinical workflows and expanding healthcare capacity.”

The SAMURAI-CT study will focus on four NHS emergency departments, including OUH, to evaluate whether AI can help clinicians diagnose urgent intracranial pathology more quickly and accurately.

SMART-XR is being conducted in collaboration with medical technology company Harrison-AI and aims to determine whether AI can reliably and safely report on chest X-rays without human intervention.

An additional project, SWIFT LUNG, is testing an AI tool for predicting lung cancer.

The study involves NHS Highlands, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.