The trial is the first of its kind to use AI for the 20-week pregnancy scan on real patients, and is led by King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Results from the trial found that AI-assisted 20-week scans were significantly shorter than standard scans, reducing the scan length by over 40 per cent. The trial is detailed in NEJM AI,
The 20-week pregnancy screening can be a worrying experience for expectant parents as sonographers are looking for signs of 11 different conditions in a baby, such as heart defects. However, the extra time freed up by using the AI tool allows the sonographer more time to focus on the parents, which may help to ease anxieties.
In a statement, Dr Thomas Day, lead author of the study, who is a Clinical Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Consultant Paediatric and Foetal Cardiologist at Evelina London Children's Hospital, said: “Understandably this 20-week scan can be a nerve-wracking time for parents, as they’re finding out the health of their unborn child. Our research has shown that AI-assisted scans are accurate, reliable and more efficient. We hope that using AI in these scans will free up precious time for sonographers to focus on patient care, making the experience more comfortable and reassuring for parents.”
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The trial featured 78 pregnant participants and 58 sonographers. Each pregnant participant was scanned twice, once using the AI-assisted scanner and once without AI.
The study showed that the AI-assisted scans – which automatically took several thousand snapshots of each foetal measurement compared to three taken by a human sonographer – were more reliable compared to manual measurements. This may improve the accuracy of assessing foetal growth and health, helping medical professionals make decisions earlier that could improve health outcomes for the baby.
The AI-tool alters the way in which the scan is performed, as sonographers no longer need to pause, save images, or measure during the scan, resulting in fewer interruptions and making the process smoother.
Ashleigh Louison, a 36-year-old senior operations manager from north-west London, was one of the participants in the trial at St Thomas’ Hospital. During her pregnancy, her son Lennox was diagnosed with heart disease. This early diagnosis allowed doctors at St Thomas’ and Evelina London Children’s Hospital to plan immediate medical care for Lennox when he was born, including lifesaving surgery within two weeks of his birth.
The AI tool is now being rolled out through Fraiya, a University-NHS spinout company from King's College London, Guy's and St Thomas' and King’s College Hospital. The company’s goal is to create AI-powered tools for pregnancy ultrasound that improve medical diagnoses, help healthcare professionals, and enhance care for patients.
Fraiya has been developed as part of the MedTech Venture Builder programme at The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE).
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