The trial will use AI to identify patients at risk for adverse events from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to prevent emergency hospital admissions. COPD is a preventable disease which affects over one million people in the UK, and is the second most common cause of emergency hospital admissions.

The year-long trial launched this week in partnership with Lenus Health and the West of Scotland Innovation Hub. Using machine learning-based models, the trial will secure electronic health data. The NHSGGC is calling the trial the first of its kind. 

“With the aging population and rising prevalence and complexity of long-term conditions, clinicians are overwhelmed with data that they don’t have the capacity to review,” said Dr Chris Carlin, consultant respiratory physician at NHSGGC and project lead. 

“These have the potential to give us back time to focus on patient-clinician human interactions, and allow us to optimise preventative management to improve patient outcomes and quality of life rather than continue to firefight with unsustainable reactive unscheduled care,” he said. 

The project will build on a previous collaboration between Lenus Health and NHSGGC which used digital technology for those with COPD to manage and receive support for their conditions at home. Patients already using this service will have the option to consent to take part in the AI study.

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“This trial is the culmination of many years’ work covering model training, developing the technical infrastructure to automate production of model scores and establishing processes and explainability features with the clinical team to act on the insights provided,” said Lenus Health CEO Paul McGinness.

“We are confident that the introduction of clinical decision support based on AI generated insights is the intervention which can truly transform management of chronic conditions like COPD by enabling prioritised care optimisation and enhanced proactive self-management support,” he said.