New AI stroke-imaging tool halves time to treatment
An AI-powered imaging tool is helping doctors detect strokes more quickly, enabling faster treatment and giving patients a better shot at recovery.
A new AI-powered tool rolled out across England is helping clinicians diagnose strokes much sooner, significantly speeding up treatment decisions and improving patient outcomes. According to a study published in The Lancet Digital Health, roughly 15,000 patients benefited directly from AI-assisted scan reviews.
The tool, deployed at over 70 hospitals, analyses brain scans in minutes to rapidly identify clots, supporting doctors in deciding whether a patient needs urgent procedures such as a thrombectomy. Sites using the AI saw thrombectomy rates double (from 2.3% to 4.6%), compared with more modest increases at hospitals not using the technology.
Time is critical in stroke treatment: each 20-minute delay in thrombectomy reduces a patient’s chance of full recovery by around 1 per cent. The AI-driven system also helped cut the average ‘door-in to door-out’ time at primary stroke centres by 64 minutes, making it far more likely that patients reach a specialist centre in time for treatment.
Health-service leaders say the findings provide real-world evidence that AI imaging can save lives and reduce disability after stroke. As a result, the technology is now part of a wider national rollout across every regularly admitting stroke service in England.
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