A Newcastle surgeon is leading a project using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve how organ are assessed before lifesaving transplants.
Colin Wilson, of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust is co-lead of a project - called OrQA - which has just received £1m in funding. OrQA - Organ Quality Assessment - works by using software similar to that used for facial recognition to analyse the quality of a donor organ. The trust runs both the Freeman and the RVI.
This should, medics hope, improve how many organs they are able to use for transplantation. It is estimated that using the technology could enable 200 more kidney transplants and 100 more liver transplants a year in the UK. said: “Up until now, we haven’t had anything to help us as surgeons at the time of organ retrieval. This is a really important step for professionals and patients to make sure people can get the right transplant as soon as possible."
