A project that uses AI to help match organ donors with recipients has received £1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The new method uses AI and its "memory" of tens of thousands of images of donor organs to identify those that offer the best chance of transplant success.
Currently, surgeons examine donor organs and assess their suitability. However, using AI for this process could help NHS surgeons perform 300 more transplant surgeries every year, experts have said.
The team behind the technology, known as OrQA – 'Organ Quality Assessment' – said it could result in up to 200 more patients receiving kidney transplants and 100 more receiving liver transplants every year in the UK.
“We are developing a deep machine-learning algorithm which will be trained using thousands of images of human organs to assess images of donor organs more effectively than what the human eye can see," Professor Hassan...