Afshin Attari
Senior Director of Public Sector, Exponential-e
Jonathan Bridges
Chief Innovation Officer, Exponential-e
A UK-based cloud, connectivity, communications and managed IT company aims to bring more agile technology services to the public sector, empowering NHS staff to provide higher levels of patient care and deliver better outcomes.
Advancements in AI, technology and visual digital image assessment are creating opportunities for the NHS to meet ambitious targets, combating an ageing population, ongoing pressure on clinicians and a backlog of procedures and services.
Jonathan Bridges, Chief Innovation Officer at Exponential-e, explains: “AI won’t replace staff, but it can support the NHS to optimise operations and manage people more effectively to provide the best levels of care. One area we have seen significant growth and development from AI integration is Pathology.”
Pathology AI technology
Bridges continues: “Today, tissue samples can be digitised instead of using glass slides. AI can then assess these high-resolution images in under three minutes, flagging cancer risk and helping experienced pathologists to prioritise cases faster.”
Afshin Attari, Senior Director of Public Sector, explains: “Sharing data into scalable, collaborative secure national platforms could enable AI to support pathology in identifying urgent cases quickly, improving diagnosis times and supporting stretched pathology teams.” This technology has the potential to improve patient outcomes and mortality; it could shorten the diagnostic journey and enable significant economic savings throughout the NHS.
Sharing data into scalable, collaborative secure
national platforms could enable AI to support
pathology in identifying urgent cases quickly.
Available cloud services
One of the biggest challenges of integrating AI technology into the NHS is ensuring compliance with the NHS security postures and standards, GDPR and cybersecurity protocols. Exponential-e, a mid-size UK-based service provider of cyber-secure cloud environments, is helping the NHS embrace such AI innovation.
“We provide security, connectivity and cloud-managed services. We have a clear focus on working alongside public sector and government agencies, including healthcare,” says Attari. “During Covid-19, we were recognised as a critical national service provider, notably as we provide Health and Social Care Networking (HSCN) connectivity to three out of five of London’s Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) with a coverage of circa 65% of London’s population. We also currently provide around 20% of the pathology secure cloud platform infrastructures within England.”
Bridges adds: “We bring advancements in AI technology to the secure data platforms; not the other way around. This new AI technology already exists, and it can protect the integrity of NHS data.” Alongside Dell Technologies, Exponential-e is building innovative IT, cyber, cloud and communications services where diverse AI models can run in agile, controlled and regulatory-compliant conditions via a high-capacity Ethernet core network. Centralising AI in secure data environments in this way offers a path forward, which maintains data governance and mitigates cyber risk.
To find out more: https://www.exponential-e.com/
