Gateshead Health Foundation NHS Trust furthers its partnership with Kheiron Medical Technologies under the NHS AI in Health & Care Award

In October 2021, Gateshead Health Foundation NHS Trust entered into a research agreement with Kheiron Medical Technologies as part of the NHS Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health & Care Award to be part of a multicentre retrospective study of Kheiron’s AI tool called Mia™ (Mammography Intelligent Assessment). 

Consultants Alice Leaver and Alan Redman with mammography equipment.
Consultants Alice Leaver and Alan Redman with mammography equipment.

Mia is Kheiron’s AI platform for breast screening designed to empower radiologists and screening services to deliver confident, accurate and timely results. Its goal is to support radiologists in making the critical “call-back” decision while reducing their workload, increasing screening efficiency, and improving the patient experience.

Over the past 12 months, Kheiron and Gateshead Health Foundation NHS Trust have completed a successful historical data extraction to facilitate the retrospective study. The project is therefore moving to the next exciting phase of work.

Mia will now be used as an audit tool on recently reported breast screening mammograms. This valuable audit exercise will involve the clinical team having hands-on experience with the exciting new AI tool. Our clinical teams will gain a better understanding of, and provide feedback on, how AI might fit into the national breast screening programme in the future without impacting the service or its users right now but working towards its adoption for the eventual benefit to the women using the Gateshead breast screening programme. 

Kheiron is taking this approach with a number of NHS sites within the AI Award and it is a crucial part of Kheiron’s strategy to deploy the Mia AI tool into NHS breast screening. Dr Jonathan Nash, Kheiron’s UK and Ireland medical director, says “Kheiron’s vital work with the Gateshead team is helping turn the dream into reality. We have successfully collected data from screening mammograms in the past; now we are progressing to show how Mia works in real life. Patients’ safety remains paramount through this further experimental phase, with the established standard of care continuing alongside our combined learning activities.”.

Dr Alan Redman, consultant breast radiologist and director of breast screening at Gateshead Health Foundation NHS Trust, says “We are excited to continue our partnership with Kheiron. Using Mia as an audit tool should help us to further assess the quality of the service we provide whilst providing our clinicians with exciting hands-on experience of working with Mia.”