NTT DATA Flags Gen AI Progress and Gaps in UK Healthcare

AI, especially Gen AI, is ushering in transformative benefits across the healthcare sector.

Its impact extends beyond direct patient care, optimising healthcare operations from resource management to patient flow.

McKinsey has underscored how Gen AI adeptly navigates extensive volumes of patient records, enabling healthcare professionals to allocate more time to intricate patient care tasks.

Moreover, it revolutionises health insurance processes by shaping unstructured data into structured formats, facilitating almost immediate verification of benefits.

However, recent research from NTT DATA has uncovered a crucial gap between the ambitious Gen AI aspirations and the healthcare industry's present capabilities to fulfil such goals.

Strategies and alignment challenges

According to NTT DATA, over 80% of healthcare leaders assert having a comprehensive Gen AI strategy.

Yet, a mere 40% confirm their strategy is in robust alignment with business goals, and only 54% rate their Gen AI capabilities as high-performing.

This disconnect becomes more pronounced as the UK government unfolds its Fit for the Future 10-year Health Plan, setting the stage for the NHS to lead one of the world's most AI-empowered healthcare systems.

Despite these hurdles, the enthusiasm for Gen AI within healthcare circles remains justified.

From NTT DATA's survey, an impressive 94% of respondents anticipate that Gen AI can greatly boost research and development, unlocking new treatments, enhanced diagnostics and more refined predictive analytics.

Mentioned benefits include improved diagnostic precision, enhanced patient experiences and more efficient administrative procedures.

Despite this potential, several obstacles threaten to hinder this advancement, such as:

• Skills shortages: 75% of healthcare leaders report insufficient internal Gen AI expertise.
• Legacy infrastructure: 91% state that outdated technology obstructs their capacity to scale Gen AI.
• Security and privacy concerns: 91% worry about safeguarding sensitive health data, with only 42% confident in their AI application security measures.

Despite the challenges, there is an optimistic outlook.

NTT DATA reports that 87% believe the long-term benefits of Gen AI outweigh the risks, and more than half of healthcare executives plan substantial investments in AI within the next two years.

Sundar Srinivasan, Senior Vice President, Healthcare, NTT DATA North America, says: “To achieve Gen AI’s full potential in healthcare, organisations must align the technology to their business strategies, develop comprehensive workforce training and implement multi-layered governance strategies that prioritise people and keep humans in the loop. It's vital to transparently show how the technology benefits patients by complementing human workers.”

NHS and AI use cases

The UK's ambitious health plan aims for the NHS to transition from analogue to digital systems over the next decade, incorporating AI as a reliable auxiliary for every clinician.

This vision focuses on leveraging AI to enhance clinical diagnostic decision-making and to upskill personnel and bridge workforce deficiencies.

Tom Winstanley, Chief Technology Officer at NTT DATA UK & Ireland, says: “Our report analyses the importance of AI to healthcare, which has just been demonstrated in the UK Government’s latest 10-Year Health Plan for England. The plan aims to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world and calls for all hospitals to fully adopt AI, placing the UK at the forefront of investment and adoption.

"To achieve this, it aims to support all doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals with trusted AI assistants, signalling a bridge across the skills gap exposed in the report, while securely leveraging the wealth of health data within the NHS.”

A notable deployment is the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust's collaboration with NTT DATA in developing an advanced AI-driven radiology analysis platform.

This service is set to leverage Gen AI for speedier and more precise cancer detection, equipping researchers and clinicians with a remarkable tool for imaging biomarker analysis and boosting patient outcomes.

Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), it embodies how AI currently transforms cancer research and healthcare in the UK, aiming to advance diagnostic accuracy and expedience, thereby directly benefiting cancer patients through swifter detection and targeted treatments.

Flann Horgan, Vice President of Healthcare at NTT DATA UK&I, says: “This partnership illustrates how AI technology can be harnessed for good. The ethical and secure use of AI in healthcare is central to our mission to build a smarter, healthier society and this project is a blueprint for what responsible innovation looks like in practice. We are proud to support The Royal Marsden in pushing the boundaries of cancer research.”