AI set to improve patient care and deliver huge savings to NHS

Health tech company, Clinithink, has signed a five-year contract with software provider The Access Group (Access), which is set to improve patient care, relieve workloads for stretched clinicians and deliver significant savings to NHS trusts.

Using the world’s first AI that can understand unstructured medical notes and working with East London NHS Foundation Trust in a pilot phase, the Access Rio Patient Insight software is projected to save upwards of £840,000 of a trust’s operational costs per year.

This includes an estimated 1 per cent reduction in admissions, equating on average of £425,000 and an additional £192,000 drug cost savings.

It also includes a 25 per cent reduction in follow-up appointments – resulting in shorter waiting times for patients.

Chris Tackaberry, co-founder and CEO at Clinithink, said:

“This is an exciting partnership, which will deliver significant benefits to patients, clinicians and NHS trusts across the UK at a time when resources are undeniably stretched.

“By placing the patient at the centre of an integrated service and gaining an up-to-date, single view of an individual’s healthcare, we can start to deliver a truly joined-up health service.”

The new software harnesses Clinithink’s CLiX unlock technology, providing clinicians with a clear timeline summary of relevant patient information, such as medication and risks, on one screen, without needing to read through extensive progress notes, which can run to hundreds of pages.

The AI solves this problem by rapidly reading and understanding the rich, narrative content in the entire record, saving valuable time and giving doctors easy access to the information they require.

The technology will lead to better information-sharing among clinicians, improved patient safety and more accurate prescribing – reducing the number of ‘care episodes’.

It will also free up thousands of hours of clinician time, when rising workloads and staff shortages are placing healthcare professionals under greater pressure.

Clinithink and Access first introduced the AI technology in 2020, as part of a pilot project at East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) – one of the UK’s largest mental health providers.

The software is now being trialled at other large mental health providers as part of its ongoing development

Lee Meredith, head of product in health at The Access Group, said:

“At The Access Group, we are proud to be partnering with Clinithink to bring this ground-breaking AI technology to healthcare providers.

“The Access Rio EPR platform will be significantly enhanced with the Patient Insight module, powered by Clinithink’s CLiX software, and has the potential to revolutionise the way clinicians access and use patient data, providing them with actionable insights from unstructured medical notes in a fraction of the time it would take to read through them manually.”

Toby Baldwin, interim chief clinical digital officer at East London NHS Foundation Trust, said:

 “We are pleased to have worked with Clinithink and The Access Group within the pilot phase of this exciting new technology addressing patient data analysis.

“In the limited time a clinician has to prepare for an appointment, the in-depth analysis of the unstructured notes that this system can achieve simply wouldn’t be possible manually.

“As a result, this technology has the potential to really improve both patient care and patient safety through safer prescribing, as an example.”