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Northern Ambulance Alliance briefing on AI aspirations ahead of industry day

techUK is working with the Northern Ambulance Alliance (NAA) to deliver a briefing and an industry day for members. The NAA, a partnership between the four northern Ambulance Services, will cover their aspirations with regards to the use of AI.

The NAA has recently initiated work to develop its thinking on the potential uses of AI support for ambulance services. The four Trusts are seeking to identify a number of potential use cases that may be taken forward into pilot projects. Current areas under consideration include but are not limited to the following: 

  • Offline AI Support to Call Audit.  This will involve the use of NLP to convert recorded speech into text and thereafter using a set of algorithms to analyse the data and assess if there are any indications that the mandated steps a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) have not been followed correctly. 
  • Live AI Support to Call Handling. Three potential use cases have been identified in the live environment. Please note that at this stage it is not intended that any AI will be directly involved in clinical decision-making.
  • Triage monitoring. The NLP techniques above can also add value in the live environment where NLP has the potential to be used to aid call handling by monitoring CDSS use and alert call handlers if a deviation from the expected triage path in an urgent or emergency call occurs.
  • Key word/phrase alerts.  NLP can be used to listen for and create appropriate alerts when key phrases are used by a caller. For example, the use of “threat words” which may result in a potential danger to crews on scene, or “event words” which may result in call handlers requiring support.
  • Conversational AI to support non urgent telephony. This envisages using AI techniques to encourage service users to move away from voice communications, for example, moving routine enquiries about PTS to a text rather than a voice channel.
  • ML Support to Clinical Queue Assessment. Clinicians working in the Clinical Assessment area of the 111 Service are routinely presented with a list of calls that have been referred to them for call-back (the stack).  There is an opportunity to use AI to monitor the clinical queue and using an algorithm developed by using ML which compares the symptoms described to the outcomes of previous cases with the same or similar presentation to propose to the clinician which cases should be prioritised.
  • ML to support in risk management Analysis. This work involves using ML to analyse Datix reports to assess trends and create appropriate alerts.
  • AI Support to Voice navigation of EPR. Investigating work already underway for GPs and dentists, AI voice recognition software may have utility for on-scene clinicians if it can reduce the burden of electronic form filling, either when, with the patient or after an event.
  • Conversational AI. The use of conversational AI to replace the need for a call into 111 for emergency repeat prescriptions.

As part of the development of these and other potential uses cases, the NAA will be holding a market engagement event in October where they will be seeking ideas and feedback from industry partners. After the briefing, participants will be invited to express an interest in presenting at the industry day.


Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Head of Health & Social Care, techUK

Viola Pastorino

Viola Pastorino

Junior Programme Manager, Health and Care Team, techUK

Rachel Kennedy

Rachel Kennedy

Programme Manager Health and Social Care, techUK

Tracy Modha

Tracy Modha

Programme Marketing Assistant for Public Sector Markets, techUK


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