AI-Driven Primary Care Clinical Assessment Platform for Allied Health Professionals (PC-CAP)
Lead Participant:
DEM DX LIMITED
Abstract
NHS Primary Care is in crisis: GP practices are experiencing sharply declining GP numbers (1,565 FTE fewer than 2015) and rising demand (6.1m waiting lists; 30.1m appointments in March 2022). They are struggling to recruit and retain staff (7,000 GP shortfall projected within 5 years). This impacts patient care.
The NHS Long Term Plan aims to meet these challenges, allocating £4.5bn to expand the role of allied healthcare professionals (AHPs), giving more front-line clinical assessment and triage responsibilities to nurse associates, physician associates, clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers.
This workforce redesign brings new challenges. AHPs are reporting feeling out-of-their-depth and often requiring senior guidance. This is resulting in inefficient, disrupted workflows, inconsistent patient delivery and delays in care, creating high levels of burnout (44% of AHPs reported job anxiety in 2020/21) and 20% turnover. AHPs have raised the urgent need for AHP-specific support tools, with existing systems not meeting their needs.
This project will deliver DemDx's Primary Care Clinical Assessment Platform (PC-CAP): the only support tool designed specifically for and with AHPs. Innovations include:
* Technical: AI allowing dynamic consideration of complex associations across 10,000s of symptoms, differentials and "red flags" in validated NICE CKS data. PC-CAP's data-driven (vs specialist-driven) approach will enable AHPs to make sense of complex data associations to make safe, consistent decisions. PC-CAP provides data weighting, enabling identification and prioritisation of most probable conditions, driving accuracy of recommendations. It links to local pathways/protocols to inform best referral options. All outputs are tailored to AHP competencies, and we initially focus on common minor illnesses. Proof-of-concept of the AI has been demonstrated at Moorfield's Eye Hospital.
* Scientific: powered by datasets, including Oxford-RCGP dataset, covering 1800 general practices, NICE CKS, and PCN anonymised patient data.
* Commercial: the only solution designed specifically for AHPs; fully interoperable system which can be licenced and integrated into clinical pathways worldwide..
PC-CAP offers socio-economic impact by:
* enabling AHPs to confidently, autonomously undertake appointments.
* increasing GP capacity to focus on complex patients.
* reducing waiting times, preventing escalation of conditions, enabling shorter treatment pathways, reducing hospital admissions; improving care and quality adjusted life years.
* enabling £16.9m/year NHS savings: reduced operational (£6.8m), A&E visit (£5m), ambulance (£3.8m) and GP locum costs (£1m).
Our serviceable addressable market is £160m UK and £2.3bn worldwide, with use cases in primary, community, urgent, emergency and secondary care.
The NHS Long Term Plan aims to meet these challenges, allocating £4.5bn to expand the role of allied healthcare professionals (AHPs), giving more front-line clinical assessment and triage responsibilities to nurse associates, physician associates, clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers.
This workforce redesign brings new challenges. AHPs are reporting feeling out-of-their-depth and often requiring senior guidance. This is resulting in inefficient, disrupted workflows, inconsistent patient delivery and delays in care, creating high levels of burnout (44% of AHPs reported job anxiety in 2020/21) and 20% turnover. AHPs have raised the urgent need for AHP-specific support tools, with existing systems not meeting their needs.
This project will deliver DemDx's Primary Care Clinical Assessment Platform (PC-CAP): the only support tool designed specifically for and with AHPs. Innovations include:
* Technical: AI allowing dynamic consideration of complex associations across 10,000s of symptoms, differentials and "red flags" in validated NICE CKS data. PC-CAP's data-driven (vs specialist-driven) approach will enable AHPs to make sense of complex data associations to make safe, consistent decisions. PC-CAP provides data weighting, enabling identification and prioritisation of most probable conditions, driving accuracy of recommendations. It links to local pathways/protocols to inform best referral options. All outputs are tailored to AHP competencies, and we initially focus on common minor illnesses. Proof-of-concept of the AI has been demonstrated at Moorfield's Eye Hospital.
* Scientific: powered by datasets, including Oxford-RCGP dataset, covering 1800 general practices, NICE CKS, and PCN anonymised patient data.
* Commercial: the only solution designed specifically for AHPs; fully interoperable system which can be licenced and integrated into clinical pathways worldwide..
PC-CAP offers socio-economic impact by:
* enabling AHPs to confidently, autonomously undertake appointments.
* increasing GP capacity to focus on complex patients.
* reducing waiting times, preventing escalation of conditions, enabling shorter treatment pathways, reducing hospital admissions; improving care and quality adjusted life years.
* enabling £16.9m/year NHS savings: reduced operational (£6.8m), A&E visit (£5m), ambulance (£3.8m) and GP locum costs (£1m).
Our serviceable addressable market is £160m UK and £2.3bn worldwide, with use cases in primary, community, urgent, emergency and secondary care.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| DEM DX LIMITED | £306,736 | £ 214,715 |
Participant |
||
| BROMLEY BY BOW HEALTH PARTNERSHIP | £76,552 | £ 45,931 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lorin Gresser (Project Manager) |