UK to Invest £50 Million in Five AI-Powered Digital Pathology and Imaging Centres to Transform Disease Diagnosis

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat official account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that UK Business Secretary Greg Clark announced to the media on November 6 (local time) that the United Kingdom will establish five new AI digital pathology imaging centers. These centers will bring together representatives from academia, philanthropy, and industry to accelerate the development of disease diagnosis in the UK. The centers are expected to become operational in 2019. They are: the Oxford National Consortium for Intelligent Medical Imaging, the Leeds Northern Pathology Imaging Collaborative, the Glasgow Industrial Research Centre for AI in Digital Diagnostics, the Coventry Pathology Image Data Centre, and the London Medical Imaging Centre.

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The University of Glasgow stated that, in addition to the £10 million in funding provided by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), six companies—including Canon Medical Research Europe and Philips—will invest more than £5 million to support the Scottish consortium. Furthermore, member companies of the Leeds Northern Pathology Imaging Collaborative have committed to investing £7 million.

David Harrison, the project’s principal investigator, stated, “This is a genuine collaboration among researchers from Scottish universities, the UK National Health Service (NHS), and industry partners, who have provided substantial funding for this initiative. Our goal is to transform Scotland’s digital diagnostic healthcare system to benefit patients and make NHS processes more streamlined and modernized.”

According to the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Philips, GE Healthcare, Siemens, and Leica will jointly lead the five new AI digital pathology imaging centers.

According to previously released information, these centers must ensure that their activities are built upon established connections with policymakers and regulatory bodies, and collaborate with relevant partners—including the UK’s Local Health and Care Records Exemplars and the UK’s Digital Innovation Hubs—to jointly address issues related to the standardization of disease diagnosis, data sharing, and interoperability.

“Bringing together the teams developing these artificial intelligence tools has the potential to revolutionize the speed and accuracy of medical diagnosis,” said Professor Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

However, earlier this year, the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee warned the project consortium that the strategic initiative had “little chance of success” without clear accountability and effective engagement with the NHS.