Artificial intelligence could help NHS surgeons perform 300 more transplant operations every year, according to British researchers who have designed a new tool to boost the quality of donor organs.
Currently, medical staff must rely on their own assessments of whether an organ may be suitable for transplanting into a patient. It means some organs are picked that ultimately do not prove successful, while others that might be useful can be disregarded.
Now experts have developed a pioneering method that uses AI to effectively score potential organs by comparing them to images of tens of thousands of other organs used in transplant operations.
The project is being backed by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which has almost 7,000 people in the UK on its waiting list for a transplant.
“We at NHSBT are extremely committed to making this exciting venture a success,” said Prof Derek Manas, the organ donation and transplantation medical director of NHSBT.
“This is an exciting development in technological infrastructure that, once validated, will enable surgeons and transplant clinicians to make more informed decisions about organ usage and help to close the gap between those patients waiting for and those receiving lifesaving organs.”
Researchers have secured £1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research to refine the technology, known as OrQA – Organ Quality Assessment. It could result in 200 more patients having kidney transplants and 100 more receiving liver transplants every year in the UK.
“Currently, when an organ becomes available, it is assessed by a surgical team by sight, which means, occasionally, organs will be deemed not suitable for transplant,” said Prof Hassan Ugail, director of the centre for visual computing at the University of Bradford.
AI is used “to assess images of donor organs more effectively than what the human eye can see,” added Ugail, whose team is refining the image analysis.
“This will ultimately mean a surgeon could take a photo of the donated organ, upload it to OrQA and get an immediate answer as to how best to use the donated organ.”
The tool will look for damage, pre-existing conditions and how well blood has been flushed out of the organ.
“Up until now, we haven’t had anything to help us as surgeons at the time of organ retrieval,” said Colin Wilson, a transplant surgeon at Newcastle upon Tyne hospitals NHS foundation trust and the co-lead of the project.
“This is a really important step for professionals and patients to make sure people can get the right transplant as soon as possible.”
