Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust teams up with Hartree Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury to transform patient care using artificial intelligence. Tony McDonough reports
A new partnership between Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the Hartree Centre is to explore ways of using artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital tech to transform healthcare.
Mersey Care serves the health needs of more than 1.4m people across Liverpool city region and Warrington. It offers specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health.
Employing around 11,000 people it is also one of only three NHS trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
Based at Sci-Tech Daresbury, the Hartree Centre is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It is the UK’s only supercomputing centre dedicated to industry engagement.
And it is home to some of the most advanced computing, data and AI technologies in the UK, enabling productivity, innovation, and growth in UK businesses and organisations.
This latest collaboration is a pivotal step towards realising the potential of advanced digital technologies in NHS healthcare, to elevate the quality and effectiveness of patient care, and contribute to healthier lives.
The announcement closely follows Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s budget announcement of £3.4bn funding to support digital transformation in the NHS as part of wider plans to boost productivity.
Mersey Care and Hartree will embark on a series of scoping projects to explore the adoption and integration of advanced digital technologies, from AI to quantum computing.
These projects will specifically focus on mapping out pathways to enhance healthcare services, with a primary goal of optimising patient outcomes. The intention is to address challenges across the board, including:
- Outsmarting disease with faster and more accurate detection and diagnosis.
- More personalised healthcare.
- An upskilled workforce empowering healthcare professionals with the skills to harness digital technologies for improved productivity and patient care, with less time spent on administrative tasks
- Advanced AI systems for enhanced prediction and decision-making across the board, including mental health care.
Kate Royse, Director of the Hartree Centre said: “Our mission is to equip UK industry with the knowledge, skills, and compute needed to fully unlock the potential of advanced digital technologies.
“This collaboration is not just about technology. It’s about enhancing the digital skills of the UK NHS workforce and making digital technologies more accessible.
“From automating tasks, to monitoring at-risk patients, the ultimate aim is to optimise patient outcomes, to the benefit of the whole of society.”
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Professor Joe Rafferty, Mersey Care’s chief executive, recently hosted a major expo of international tech leaders to set out his trust’s vision of being an anchor institution in digital healthcare research.
He added: “We’re the largest provider of some of the most specialist mental healthcare in the NHS. This scale and the data we produce allows us to talk about the interrelationship between physical, mental and social health.
“Our vision is not merely to create a world class digital research centre but to do so in order to deliver the best results possible to our patients, service users and our communities.”