Keele and NHS Trust partner to advance ethical AI in healthcare
Experts at Keele University are working with a local NHS trust to plan how it can use artificial intelligence (AI) ethically and responsibly to enhance patient care, support frontline staff, and better meet the evolving needs of communities.
The Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT), that serves a population of 1.7 million people, has developed a short-term AI strategy that sets out an approach to embedding AI across its services in a way that is safe, ethical, and effective.
Dr Baidaa Al-Bander and Dr Marco Ortolani, from Keele University’s School of Computer Science and Mathematics, have joined the NHS Trust's AI Programme steering group that has informed the new AI strategy. Their work is supported by Keele's Digital Society Institute, which provides advanced computing infrastructure designed to tackle the challenges - and harness the opportunities - of the digital revolution.
Dr Ortolani, a Senior Lecturer in Computing, said: "The clinical domain is of particular interest to us, and together with MPFT we are exploring opportunities to develop collaborative human-AI systems where NHS staff and AI work together to ensure AI tools for digital health are fair, transparent, and aligned with real healthcare needs."
The Trust says the strategy is short-term by design, so it can remain agile in its use, adoption and evaluation of AI.
Jackie Small, Chair of MPFT, said: "Our AI Strategy ensures that across MPFT's diverse range of services, AI is adopted in an ethical, equitable, and responsible way. We will apply AI to enhance the quality, safety, efficiency and accessibility of care and support for the communities we serve."
Speaking on the partnership between the Trust and the university, MPFT's Chief Digital Information Officer, Martyn Perry said: "Working with Keele University, having their expertise on our AI Programme Steering Group, and being an active participant of the Keele Digital Society Institute has been of real value to the Trust and our AI approach."
