The Universities of Nottingham, Oxford and Warwick are leading ‘blue sky’ research into artificially-intelligent medical devices that will improve treatment for cancer and intensive care patients and those with chronic wounds.
The future technologies will continuously monitor critically-ill patients and administer medicines or adjust treatment automatically, using feedback from built-in sensors. The aim is to provide more personalised, accurate and timely care and, ultimately, to save lives.
For the next three years, Professor Stephen Morgan, from the Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham, will head up a network of experts in healthcare technologies, sensing, clinical care, control and modelling to identify potentially innovative clinical tools and approaches. He will be supported by: Dr Serhiy Korposh, a lecturer in nanoscale bioelectronics from the Department of Electronic and Electrical engineering at Nottingham; Professor Jonathan Hardman, a clinical professor in anaesthesia and critical illness from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Nottingham and an NHS consultant anaesthetist; Professor Helen Byrne of the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford; and Professor Declan Bates from the University of Warwick whose research focuses on the modelling, analysis, control and design of complex biological systems.
They are focusing attention on devices that will use a similar closed loop control system of feedback and intelligence as used in power electronics for control of motors – along with mathematical models used in machine-learning for artificial intelligence (AI). High-tech sensors will monitor patients’ vital signs, while mathematical models will inform med-tech designers how the body is predicted to work or how a disease such as cancer behaves. The network, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will focus its research in three clinical areas: critical care; chronic wounds; and cancer treatment.
Professor Morgan said: “The advent of massive computer power, highly sensitive, specific and flexible sensors, and precisely delivered treatments has finally allowed closedloop control systems to offer a revolutionary leap in medical treatment. The intensive care unit, for instance, provides a highly controlled and technology-friendly environment that favours the development of closed loop control and so there are excellent opportunities to make rapid progress in optimising treatment and advancing the proposed technology.”
A potential game-changer in intensive care could be a device that uses sensors to continuously monitor a patient’s breathing for irregularities and automatically tailor the amount of oxygen being provided, and to personalise the forces used to ventilate the patient’s lungs, in order to improve their condition. Smart wound dressings, comprising fabric embedded with sensors that check for infection and even administer antibiotic drugs to accelerate healing, represent another example of the technology that may meet future healthcare challenges.
