Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be the first of its kind in England to trial Artificial Intelligence (AI) software within breast cancer screening.
The LIBRA (Leeds Investigation of Breast screening AI) study aims to generate evidence for the safe use of AI and investigate if it could increase cancer detection rates, reduce unnecessary patient recalls and ease workforce pressures.
The NHS is facing a 30 per cent shortfall in clinical radiologists, leading to longer waiting times and worse health outcomes, according to the Royal College of Radiologists. To help tackle the problem, the trust will deploy an AI reader – Mia (Mammography Intelligent Assessment) – alongside two human readers to analyse mammograms for tell-tale signs of cancer.
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Under the current standard of care, every mammogram is seen by two human readers. If they disagree on their readings, a third reader will review the mammogram film in a process known as arbitration before a decision is made whether to recall the patient or not.
In the LIBRA study, if the two humans and the AI reader agree a mammogram is normal, the patient will receive the all-clear. If any of the human or AI readers disagree, clinicians will carry out the arbitration before making a decision on recall.
