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New AI heart scanner will cut NHS backlog in half by delivering results in minutes

Machine can detect signs of heart disease as accurately as four doctors using the standard technology

By Henry Bodkin,
HEALTH AND SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
7 August 2021 • 4:00pm
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/07/new-ai-heart-scanner-will-cut-nhs-backlog-half-delivering-results/

An artificial intelligence heart scanner promises to cut the NHS backlog in half by delivering results within 15 minutes, scientists have found.

Created at the University of Oxford, the machine taught itself automatically to diagnose heart disease from images that would normally have been pored over by a team of doctors.

Crucially, the new system does not require the injection of a contrast dye.

Patients currently have to lie in an MRI scanner for 20 minutes during which images are taken, then come out to be injected with the dye, and then go back in for another 20 minutes.

The procedure is expensive and precludes some patients who cannot tolerate the dye, which is detectable by the MRI, or who are afraid of needles.

Known as Virtual Native Enhancement (VNE), patients using the new system enter the scanner for a maximum of 15 minutes and the results are then computed immediately.

In a recent trial, VNE was found to detect signs of heart disease as accurately as four doctors using the standard technology.

Its creators said it could be deployed for a wide variety of cardiac conditions, from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is inherited and mostly seen in children and young people, to common heart failure, where the organ loses the strength to pump blood around the body properly.

NHS figures show that as of May there were 255,641 MRI scans waiting to take place, although not all will have been heart-related.

The Covid backlog saw 242,181 people waiting for invasive heart procedures by the end of that month, the highest number for May on record.

Last month Sajid Javid, the new Health Secretary, vowed to bear down on the NHS backlog, describing the size of the waiting list as “shocking”.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, the charity who funded the development, said: “This research could have huge medical benefits as the same heart diagnosis could be made faster and without an injection, giving heart patients an easier experience.

“AI technologies like these could slash the time taken to perform heart investigations.

“This means more people could reach the front of the queue for these vital heart tests sooner.”

The VNE system was built using a “deep learning” model that taught itself to recognise heart disease by studying more than 4,000 real-life images.

The next stage will be to set up a large-scale clinical trial involving patients across multiple hospitals.

The Oxford team believe the benefits will be so obvious to NHS chiefs that the technology will be rolled out within two years.

Dr Qiang Zhang, who led the development, said: “The new technology provides the same level of accuracy as the current practice but it’s quicker, cleaner and more pleasant for the patient.

“It cuts the time taken by more than half.

“We think it’s hugely significant and can be applied to most of the main heart conditions.”

The number of patients on hospital waiting lists could rise to 13 million within months as a result of Covid, Mr Javid has warned.

More than 5.3 are currently thought to be on waiting lists.

Officials are worried that some seven million people who would have been expected in normal times to seek medical treatment did not come forward during the pandemic.

These include people who have missed out on cancer checks as well as for heart disease.

Mr Javid has promised to be “creative” in attempting to clear the backlog, but has warned the task would take “considerable time”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/07/new-ai-heart-scanner-will-cut-nhs-backlog-half-delivering-results/