Nine Health Global Limited, a Leeds-based healthcare big data and artificial intelligence (AI) company, has been awarded a grant of £149,000 to build a prototype of an AI predictive system for patients with chronic lower limb wounds.

The funding forms part of the NHS Artificial Intelligence Lab and the award is managed by the Accelerated Access Collaborative in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research.

The system, called Woubot, will create a suite of automated software tools for community and wound clinics, with a mobile application designed by doctors and nurses for their own use within the NHS. Software will sift through millions of data items in secure NHS facilities, use AI to identify people likely to develop chronic leg wounds, and manage their preventative care.

• Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research

• Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future

• Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services

Why was Woubot started?

Data suggest that over two million people in the UK currently have a chronic wound , with the annual cost to the NHS of managing these wounds and related conditions estimated at £5.3 billion .
Around 180,000 people suffer from venous leg ulcers . In patients with diabetes, 80% of leg ulcers result in amputation, and after one amputation patients are twice as likely to have a second. Five-year mortality rates for diabetic patients with foot ulcers are similar to or worse than many common types of cancers.

Nine Health uses big data, AI and supercomputational modelling and other innovative technologies to improve patient and public health. In January 2020 it was highly commended for its work in China as exporter of the year in the Leeds City Region China Business Awards.