Could artificial intelligence have saved mum?

Everyone who works in the NHS has a time when their personal and professional lives collide. Here’s my story. Like many others, I knew that each year, 10,000 people in the UK are affected by stroke. But it wasn’t until it happened to my family that I realised just what that actually means. Stroke doesn’t just ‘affect’ lives – it devastates them.

It’s 2021, and I’m paying my daily visit to my parents. They’re elderly, and have been married for 60 years. Although Dad’s just been diagnosed with dementia, Mum’s in good health. I’m making a cup of tea when I hear an almighty crash – the noise still haunts me today. My mum’s in the toilet. I hear her crying “I’m having a stroke.”

With difficulty, I break down the toilet door and call an ambulance. By the time it arrives, half an hour has passed. I know how essential quick treatment is after a stroke, and I’m beside myself. Dad, meanwhile, is now asking “what happened to that lady”  – and I know I have more than just my mum to cope with.

After mum’s taken to hospital, I wait anxiously for hours to hear that she’s had all the necessary tests, which confirm her own diagnosis.  It was three months before she was home again. Three months during which I basically moved into my parents’ house to look after dad  – cooking his meals, helping him dress, stopping him having accidents and so on. We visit mum every day. Together, because I can’t leave him on his own.

When mum was discharged, she wasn’t quite mum any more.  She was an old, frail, vulnerable lady. Every day was difficult – not only caring for herself, but also for a man who no longer recognised her. Even the simplest task was a struggle. Dad died in 2023. Mum is still alive – barely. The struggle continues.

Why am I choosing to share all this deeply personal stuff in a corporate blog?

It’s because I know that there is a better way.  I don’t blame the paramedics or the hospital for anything. They did as well as they could within the constraints they were working in.

But technology exists that makes stroke diagnosis much faster and more reliable.  NHS England’s Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal Report found that remote manual reviewing by a doctor can take up to 30 minutes for a decision. Artificial intelligence can provide interpretation of imagery within seconds, saving the NHS much-needed time in the diagnostic process, crucial in stroke where interventions are time-dependent, with significant harm and long-term disability caused if left untreated.

By supporting the analysis of medical imaging for ischaemic or haemorrhagic strokes, AI enables clinicians to diagnose and treat strokes faster and more reliably. After a stroke, minutes matter, and when it comes to mum, I do think of “what ifs” – what if the toilet door hadn’t been locked? What if the ambulance had arrived more quickly? What if the scans and the interpretation of them had been swifter, because AI had been used? Would she be in a better position now?

I’m very proud that NHS SBS has been able to support the adoption of AI in stroke decision-making. We have a groundbreaking framework agreement that makes purchasing the tech simple and cost-effective, through five suppliers that we have already assessed for both quality and cost.

If you’d like to know more – and I really hope you do – just visit Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software in Neuroscience for Stroke Decision Making Support Framework Agreement | SBS/21/AP/WAS/10157