AI tool helps detect lung cancer
After visiting her doctor for a persistent cough, a Farncombe woman became the first patient in her hospital trust to benefit from an AI-powered lung cancer diagnosis system.
Dianne Covey, a 69-year-old retired hospital worker from Farncombe, credits an AI tool with helping to save her life after it helped diagnose her lung cancer in a few hours. She visited her GP with a persistent cough, and her chest X-ray was analysed by Annalise.ai, a technology that flags abnormalities for urgent review. The swift diagnosis caught her cancer at Stage 1, offering a positive prognosis.
‘I never really understood artificial intelligence, but now I think it might have saved my life,’ said Ms. Covey. ‘The early diagnosis has given me a second chance at life.’ She is the first patient at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust to benefit from the AI system, which prioritises X-rays needing immediate attention and enhances accuracy by identifying tiny anomalies often missed in manual reviews.
The Annalise.ai tool is currently being used across five UK NHS trusts in Surrey, Sussex, and Frimley, enabling radiographers to streamline cancer diagnoses. By accelerating and refining the diagnostic process, this technology has the potential to revolutionise early detection, giving countless patients a fighting chance against life-threatening diseases.
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