Peterborough City Hospital bags share of £123 million NHS investment to use AI for breast cancer research

Peterborough City Hospital’s NHS Trust has received a share of £123 million of NHS investment to use AI to enhance and speed up breast cancer diagnosis.

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which covers Peterborough City Hospital, is one of five Trusts in England to win a bid in the UK Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award to use the Ibex Galen Breast Solution to deliver the innovative digital service.

The pioneering project will support pathologists by providing AI-based tools and insights that help detect and grade different types of breast cancer.

Preparations for the year-long study, which is due to start in October 2023, are now underway.

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust director of pathology, Dr David Bailey, is leading on the project locally.

He said: “Using AI allows us to look at digital pictures from tissue slides that would traditionally be looked at by a pathologist down a microscope.

“The AI technology can view the digital slides accurately, and intuitively order any required further tests before a pathologist even needs to view the case – offering a quick and more efficient way of delivering the service. This not only saves time for the pathologist but speeds up the review process for the patient.

“The use of AI offers us the best of both worlds – the reliability and reproducibility of machines with the intuition and insight of humans.

“It is a very exciting project for the Trust to be working on and we are delighted to have been selected as one of only five Trusts to take part.”

Pathologists from each Trust – including North West Anglia – will use Ibex’s ‘Galen Breast’ to analyse a total of 10,000 biopsies as part of routine practice and evaluate how the Ibex technology helps improve the quality, speed and efficiency of diagnosis.

The aim will be to see how it can reduce case review times, improve capacity, and impacts overall cost-effectiveness of breast cancer diagnosis and turnaround times for patients.