On Tuesday 16th June, Dr Bernie Croal appeared before the House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee to give oral evidence for their inquiry into ‘Innovation in the NHS: personalised medicine & AI’. The Committee comprises 14 members of the House of Lords, many of whom have expertise in various scientific and technological fields.
The College was invited to speak to the Committee following written evidence submitted to the Committee earlier this year. Dr Croal was invited to give evidence alongside the President of the Royal College of Radiologists, Dr Stephen Harden. Our two Colleges aligned our messaging ahead of the session, demonstrating the value to the Committee of taking evidence from two different diagnostic specialties. . Committee members valued this approach.
During the oral evidence session, Dr Croal highlighted the opportunities that AI and genomic medicine present for patients and pathology services. He also noted the challenges that prevent scaling up these technologies in pathology, including pathology workforce shortages, outdated IT systems and digital infrastructure that lack interoperability and lack of financial investment in pathology services.
An emphasis was also placed on pathologists being actively involved in validating new technologies to ensure clinical trust in the systems and working with industry and regulators to ensure that promising pilots can be scaled in practice.
We look forward to the publication of the Committee's report in the coming months. We hope the recommendations they make to Government will address some of the concerns that were raised on behalf of the pathology profession.
You can watch the Committee session here.
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