AAIP to collaborate on the safety evaluation of pioneering AI healthcare Command Centre

News | Posted on Friday 6 November 2020

An AI Command Centre, thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, is to be the focus of a study to understand how it will impact the quality, safety and organisation of healthcare at the Bradford hospital it is part of.

AAIP’s Dr Ibrahim Habli, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, is a co-investigator on the study, which is led by the University of Leeds and brings together clinicians, computer scientists, statisticians, patient groups, and patient safety and health innovation experts.

A system-of-systems

Staff at an 800-bed hospital in Bradford will work together, similar to staff in an air traffic control command centre, and monitor real-time data from the hospital’s information systems. Using AI the system will generate algorithms that alert the team to urgent issues around the hospital.

“This isn’t just about one AI diagnosis or support tool,” said Dr Habli. “Our work in AAIP is already looking at how we assure individual and collaborating systems in complex socio-technical settings; giving confidence to clinicians, patients and others about their safety. 

“This project is about the system-of-systems: how we can use AI to improve the effectiveness of the data from every system in a hospital, whether an AI tool or a traditional one. This we hope will improve healthcare for every patient.”

Safety first

“An AI Command Centre like this has the potential to transform the way we provide care to patients, by highlighting bottlenecks or predicting safety breaches,” continued Dr Habli. 

“We have to understand the impact on patient safety and this study will help us to do this. By comparing the findings with data from a similar hospital without a command centre, and command centres in other safety-critical industries, we will really begin to understand the impact of such technologies on the quality, safety and organisation of healthcare.”

Patient-centred

A network of patients and members of the public helped shape the research proposal and will continue to provide a strong patient perspective throughout the 18-month study.

As well as running patient-focused workshops to explore patient views and concerns about how AI technologies might affect their care, the study will disseminate its findings through patient and public networks.

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