A team of scientists, clinicians and heart imaging specialists from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have received a double award nomination for developing an artificial intelligence tool which is able to spot heart damage in seconds.
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AI heart
The technology, which was shown to have a high degree of accuracy when tested in a large trial involving 2,000 patient scans, performs complex mathematical calculations to measure blood flow in and out of the heart without the need for manual lengthy analysis which often leave results from MRI scans pending for days.
It is also the first AI tool to assess the particular heart muscle which is responsible for pumping blood from the body into the lungs.
The super-fast analysis means that doctors have access to the information they need from MRI heart scans to understand how well the heart is pumping and check its health straight away, speeding up diagnosis and treatment.
The new software, called the AI segmentation of cardiac MRI to automate the measurement of cardiac function and volume technology, is a finalist in both the Digital Innovator of the Year and Optimising Clinical Pathways through Digital categories.
The work has been singled out from over 300 entries submitted by 120 organisations to make it to the final HSJ Digital Awards 2023 shortlist, which are in their inaugural year. The Awards aim to shine a light on the exceptional quality and breadth of innovation and care across the UK’s health and care systems.
Dr Andrew Swift, consultant cardiothoracic radiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield worked alongside Dr Samer Alabed, Dr Kavitasagary Karunasaagarar and Dr Pete Metherall to develop and test the software, with support from MRI radiographers and clinical scientists at the Sheffield 3D-lab and in collaboration with Dr Rob van der Geest at Leiden University.
Dr Swift said: “We are absolutely delighted with this double award nomination, which recognises the hard work of our team in bringing this potentially game-changing software to the NHS. The new software provides a quick and comprehensive analysis of the heart’s function and has the potential to free up more clinicians’ time to focus on direct patient care rather than having to do this analysis. The technology has also been shown to be particularly useful in observing changes in the heart’s function caused by pulmonary hypertension, a rare condition that constricts blood flow in the arteries of the lung. This in turn causes a strain on the heart, eventually leading to heart failure.”
