January 22, 2020 – London, UK. Health Education England (HEE) is funding an innovative pilot project to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve knowledge discovery for NHS staff. HEE is working with Yewno and Ken Chad Consulting to implement Yewno Discover, an advanced AI research solution.
The project came about as a result of HEE's 2019 Topol Review, independently authored by renowned medical researcher Eric Topol, MD of the Scripps Research Institute. The Review is about preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future of medicine. AI offers a potentially transformative means for healthcare staff and researchers to explore healthcare knowledge resources.
Yewno Discover works by ingesting and reading full text digital content contained in millions of scholarly books, journal articles, and data points. Users access this content by searching concepts in a visual knowledge graph that allows them to navigate as deeply as they'd like into a given subject and explore related ideas along the way. It is a highly effective method for discovering resources that might have otherwise been overlooked.
This pilot project will enable HEE to evaluate the potential for an AI based approach to enhance the discoverability and use of knowledge by healthcare professionals across the NHS. A key strand of the project, led by Ken Chad Consulting, will be an analysis of the user experience (Ux) using a variety of Ux methodologies. Working with the Library and Knowledge Services team at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), a range of use-cases will be tested in a busy and complex healthcare environment.
NHS chief Simon Stevens has called on tech firms to help the health service become a world leader in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning [1]. He has said "We are seeing an artificial intelligence revolution that will be a big part of our future over the next five years.…We want the NHS to be first out of the blocks". With this pilot project HEE is trailblazing the path for knowledge services in the NHS.
Patrick Mitchell, HEE's Director of Innovation and Transformation and SRO for NHS Library and Knowledge Services, said "Healthcare is a knowledge industry and we need to harness emerging technologies that can help our staff and learners to access evidence, build know-how, continue to learn and drive innovation. The Topol Review underlines the crucial role that AI will play in transforming healthcare and I look forward to seeing how Yewno can improve resource discovery in the NHS."
"AI helps researchers uncover connections between concepts – diseases, conditions, symptoms, and treatments to name a few – and this will revolutionize the way medical research is performed," says Yewno COO Ruth Pickering. "We are honored to have been selected by HEE and to be a part of this important project.
[1] NHS aims to be a world leader in artificial intelligence and machine learning within 5 years. NHS website 5 June 2019. https://go.yewno.com/e/311971/chine-learning-within-5-years-/kpxp6/277775007?h=JcSwt-v7cDLbhzJwfMJlqxOtT-8jvywauk3WacvP7Pc
About Yewno
Founded in 2015, Yewno is helping the world to uncover the undiscovered through its advanced dynamic Knowledge Graph and AI based inference engine, which introduces an entirely new approach to knowledge extraction. Yewno Inference Engine incorporates machine learning, neural networks, and computational linguistics into an intelligent framework to enhance human understanding by correlating concepts across a vast volume of sources. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA with offices in London and New York, Yewno is backed by leading investors including Pacific Capital and currently has numerous partnerships across the finance sector, top research universities, publishers, and content aggregators worldwide. Yewno was named Outsell's 2017 Emerging Company of the Year, and was chosen from among 250 major disruptors in the global information industry.
For more information, visit www.yewno.com.
About Health Education England
Health Education England (HEE) exists for one reason only: to support the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement to the patients and public of England by ensuring that the workforce of today and tomorrow has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place.
HEE is the steward for library and knowledge services across the NHS in England. This includes the delivery high quality evidence resources through central and collaborative procurement of content and developing the infrastructure through which NHS staff can discover and access information to support patient care, service development, education and research.
For more information, visit www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/library-knowledge-services.
About Ken Chad Consulting
Ken Chad consulting was established in 2007 to help make libraries, archives and information services more effective. Ken works with universities, government, local authorities, sector bodies, the NHS and businesses. Projects have focused on strategy, innovation and the user experience with a particular emphasis on technology. He publishes open access 'briefing papers' that cover important issues in library technology and has presented at conferences around the world.
For more information, visit www.kenchadconsulting.com
About University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDBT) was formed on 1 July 2018 to bring together five hospitals in Derby, Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth. The Trust delivers outstanding care for one million local people in southern Derbyshire and south east Staffordshire through the expertise of our 12,000 staff.
The Library and Knowledge Service supports education, research and patient care by delivering the best information service possible to Trust employees, associates, academic staff and students.
For more information, visit www.uhdblibrary.co.uk/