Artificial intelligence is being used Glasgow in deliver accurate Covid test results in under three minutes in emergency patients.
More than 3,000 chest x-rays have been validated in patients displaying shortness of breath at four NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde A&E sites.
The AI programme was able to differentiate between normal, abnormal,Covid-19 pneumonia and other forms of the illness.
Research published today found the technology performed on a par with four certified radiologists.
It aims to give an accurate result in under three minutes, which is significantly faster than the average two hour wait for a PCR test to be completed.
Doctors hope the technology could be used in the future to predict or establish the onset of other diseases including lung cancer.
Professor David Lowe, Joint Clinical Lead of the West of Scotland Innovation Hub and an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital said: “Through testing we have been able to see that this algorithm can identify COVID-19 on chest x-rays that are routinely taken during initial clinical assessment.
"This will not just help with the treatment of patients but speeds up the process of isolating infected patients to ensure the spread is reduced.”
Dr Mark Hall, Radiology Consultant at NHSGGC added: “We continue to see the positive impact artificial intelligence has on radiology, from reducing waiting times to improving accuracy and reducing pressures on staff.
“The level of accuracy allows consultants to make even more informed decisions as we have a greater pool of data to use.
"There can often be a misconception that AI input will mean the public get less time with doctors, but this is not the case. Technology like this will help us speed up processing high numbers of similar cases, while retaining accuracy, allowing for more time with patients and more complex cases.”
The work was carried out by iCAIRD, Scotland’s Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics, in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and uses Canon Medical Research Europe’s Safe Haven Artificial Intelligence Platform (SHAIP) as well as datasets from the Glasgow Safe Haven.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here