Dr Indrajeet Das, consultant radiologist at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (Credit: UHL)
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of using AI software across different patient groups.
Specialist AI evaluation company Aival is working with the trust to evaluate the performance of a system which currently supports clinicians when viewing chest X-rays.
The AI system assists with triage and reporting, providing a smart analytics dashboard which enables radiologists to prioritise critical cases and generate patient reports more quickly.
Dr Indrajeet Das, consultant radiologist at University Hospitals of Leicester, said: “Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the NHS, and working alongside doctors it can act as a second pair of eyes that helps reduce the chance of a missed diagnosis.
“That’s what is driving me to introduce AI into the process, as it doesn’t get tired, and it can remove some of these errors.
“But with so many AI tools available on the market, there’s a danger of the NHS becoming a wild west of products that aren’t being properly checked.
“University Hospitals of Leicester is leading the way on AI safety and making sure these products are improving outcomes for patients.”
As one of Britain’s most diverse cities, Leicester is an appropriate setting to ensure the system works well for patients from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Monitoring will also look for any changes in AI performance over time, addressing issues such as ‘algorithmic drift’, where accuracy may decline due to population changes or software updates.
Will Monaghan, group chief digital information officer at University Hospitals of Leicester, said: “Building confidence in how we use AI is essential if it is to play a meaningful role in the NHS.
“Trials like this give us the evidence to show that AI can be trusted to support clinical decision-making, improve safety, and deliver real value for patients.
“When we have confidence in technology, it improves the patient experience – with faster diagnoses, greater consistency, and more time for clinicians to provide personalised care.
“Most importantly, it gives us the assurance that these tools are helping us achieve better outcomes across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.”
Meanwhile, in September 2025, a new national commission was announced which includes experts from Google and Microsoft, to advise the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on speeding up access to the latest AI tools, including ambient voice technology (AVT) for clinical note taking.
Dr Alec Price-Forbes, national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, also recently announced the launch of a national AVT self-certified registry for suppliers to show evidence of compliance.
He said the new registry for suppliers “builds on our existing and recognised baseline regulatory, clinical safety, technology information governance and interoperability standards but go further by introducing AI and large language models-specific criteria for greater safety governance and performance monitoring”.
The post University Hospitals of Leicester evaluates safety of AI software first appeared on TechToday.
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