Congratulations to BeholdAI and Skin Analytics, who have been picked as winners in the NHSX and Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) AI in Health and Care Award bid.
KSS AHSN has been supporting both companies across a range of areas, including work on value proposition, market research, advice on pathway support and brokering introductions.
Commenting on their success Nuala Foley, KSS AHSN’s Industry Engagement Manager, said:
“It’s fantastic news that both BeholdAI and Skin Analytics were successful in their bids, which will see them both receiving a share of a £36 million fund to further evaluate their technologies.
“The AI in Health and Care Award bid submission process is very extensive and highly competitive, and we look forward to working with both companies on their future journeys.”
BeholdAI
BeholdAI’s 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
The tech is already being tested in a range of NHS settings, including at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust.
Simon Rasalingham, CEO and Chairman of Behold.ai, said the award represents an important milestone in the company’s journey, allowing it to gain further NHS evidence to support this new form of diagnostic medicine which is already available for use.
“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,” he added.
Skin Analytics
Skin Analytics has worked with leading experts in dermatology, clinical research and general practice to develop DERM, which analyses dermoscopic images of skin lesions using AI algorithms. DERM is a CE marked medical device designed to relieve pressure on primary and secondary care services while helping more people to survive skin cancer.
Already deployed in Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership and University Hospitals Birmingham, DERM has led to a significant reduction in unnecessary referrals while helping to tackle the dermatology backlog created by COVID-19. Through the award, these benefits can now be shared more widely across the NHS through a series of deployments giving thousands of clinicians and millions of patients access to Skin Analytics.
Neil Daly, CEO of Skin Analytics, commented: “The AI award is a major step forward in making DERM more widely available across the NHS. It will enable us to put our technology into the hands of GPs and clinicians around the country and allow them to assess its benefits for themselves. The key to skin cancer survival is early diagnosis, and DERM helps to prioritise patients into specialist services sooner rather than later. At the same time, we can more effectively manage the sharply rising demand for dermatology services with the workforce we have.”
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
