Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to support clinicians with reviewing chest x-ray (CXR) images from patients with suspected lung cancer following referral from primary care. The intended use of AI in the clinical pathway is to read and flag higher risk CXR images so that clinicians can prioritise patients for urgent computerised tomography (CT).

The evidence for the use of AI supported clinical review of CXRs for patients with suspected lung cancer is emerging. No published evidence on the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, or safety of the AI use case was identified. No studies were identified that captured patient or staff views on the use of AI in this setting.

Interim analysis (n=41 reaching diagnosis stage, n=27 reaching treatment stage) from an ongoing service evaluation in NHS Grampian shows that use of AI alongside an adjusted clinical pathway shows promise in reducing time from CXR report to CT, reducing time to treatment, and increasing the identification of patients with treatable lung cancers.

Referred by

The Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway