Shaping the future of AI in healthcare: a global gathering of AI experts

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds significant promise to improve patient outcomes and clinicians’ working lives by enabling them to focus their care where it is most urgently needed, by reducing the burden of administrative tasks, and by boosting their ability to detect and treat diseases. 

I’ve had plenty of conversations about the impact of this technology, the difference it can make to patient care and the role it plays in assisting clinicians, which is why it was so important to share these conversations on a broader scale.

These are just some of the topics we aim to discuss at our Global AI Conference 2025, where we’ll have a unique blend of leading UK and global healthcare researchers, policymakers, healthcare leaders and international contributors from over 15 countries sharing their AI learning journeys. There's nowhere else that offers that collective experience of the NHS harnessing the learning from others and applying it directly to the latest UK-based AI research in healthcare. 

This isn’t just another AI conference, it’s an opportunity to deep dive into the latest advancements and discover how to implement them in your clinical practice. I want to highlight what makes this a unique and must-attend event for clinicians.

Collaboration

Collaboration is essential among healthcare providers, technology developers and policymakers. For the first time at this event, the RCR and NHS England will be highlighting some of the successes of the NIHR AI Awards and Social Care Awards. We’ll be showcasing the developments of successful grant awardees, some of which have since become commercialised products. 

As this is essentially government funding, the Department of Health and Social Care are keen to identify the future successes from the current abstract proposals and podium presentations, so we can identify tomorrow's successes. Tech developers will be able to collaborate with everyday clinicians to incorporate and apply real-life situations into the academic and commercial development that they have done thus far.

Real-world applications

For AI imaging, we’ll be showcasing real-world NHS implementation successes. We will highlight leading industry applications to demonstrate how these can be used today and also offer a poster competition to reveal developments in progress and applications of the future. 

Implementation strategies

By sharing knowledge and best practices, we can break down the challenges of bureaucracy and red tape that clinicians face within the NHS and ultimately, improve patient care. It’s important to learn how other institutions and countries have already conquered some of these issues to inspire existing NHS trusts to join collaborative ventures. 

Exposure to tried and tested techniques, together with novel clinical applications, will allow individual hospital trusts to adapt AI solutions to their imaging problems.

Tackling ethical challenges

We have a whole stream dedicated to discussing the ethical and environmental considerations that come with AI. We’ll also be addressing important questions during several of our panel discussions including: 

• How do we ensure equality, inclusivity, transparency and diversity throughout our work?
• Who will AI in imaging benefit?
• How do we make some of our technology available to the developing world? 
• What is the environmental impact of the computer requirements for some of our AI applications? 
• Who is responsible and accountable? 

I very much hope you can join us in London or participate online in February 2025.