Originally published in MIT Technology Review, this article looks at how the pandemic has accelerated AI uptake in Health care. Karen Hao the senior AI Reporter at MIT Technology Review speaks to Dr Rizwan Malik about their recent deployment of Qure AI at Royal Bolton Hospital.

A Partly Pictorial Overly Long Review of 2019

To provide an effective and efficient clinical service, access to patient data is fundamental. As we touch virtually every clinical specialty, each with its own diverse requirements, radiologists need access to the full range of patient information in order to understand the context of the case and provide the most accurate assessment during the investigation process. But, today, we face myriad obstacles in accessing this data.

Back in 2004 the ambitious but oft-maligned National Programme for IT provisioned Picture Archivng and Communications (PACS) systems throughout the NHS in England with a series of Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts.

The name Rizwan Malik is becoming increasingly well known in NHS diagnostics. He tells Matthew D’Arcy that more radiologists need to be engaged in technology and why the wrong communications can cause damage in the age of AI.

The year is 2019 and Imaging By Machines have fulfilled their prophesy and control all Radiology Departments, making their organic predecessors obsolete.

Highlight Reel of RCR Annual Scientific Meeting about PACS

Reflecting on the occasions where I have felt frustration when others in positions of power and leadership have failed to speak out (either positively or negatively) with any great conviction on weighty or controversial matters – particularly in cases where you know they sympathise with such views personally. Be it clinical leaders, Medical Directors, Heads of Royal Colleges, MPs, Prime Ministers and Presidents. How often have we railed at their ambivalence and silence?

The international fast food chain KFC has recently been involved in a logistical and PR nightmare following a change in its Supply Chain provider.

Let us not dwell on the actors involved in this sorry saga but instead look behind the scenes of the issue and how it was dealt with.

NHS bosses up and down the country are appropriately lauding the herculean efforts made by staff to brave the elements and ensure services could continue – some using innovative methods to get to work, others instead pulling double or triple shifts because colleagues were unable to come in to relieve them.

Highlight reel of Clinisys Single LIMS talk Belfry June 2018

Radiologists need to be early birds for optimal PACS upgrades, and this means voicing their frustrations with the current systems, getting a headstart, and communicating directly with suppliers in person rather than leaving it to managers, according to an experienced practitioner.