Fraxpert: AI-supported fracture diagnosis system to tackle the radiology workforce crisis in the UK

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This project is led by Saile Villegas, director and co-founder of Seeai LTD, a Med-tech company based in Leeds that aims to reduce health inequalities and deliver the best medical care in every corner of the world.Saile Villegas was raised by a single mother, in a male-dominated town in Mexico, where cartels and violence are around the corner. Pursuing a career in STEM as a woman was beyond belief. Despite that, she showed an incredible drive to move to the UK and pursue her passion for computer science. Now she leads a multidisciplinary team of experts, from radiologists to computer science professors, to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can detect fractures as well as expert radiologists, with the NHS.Every year 152,000 fracture misdiagnosis occur in the UK. Usually, patients with suspected fractures attend the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department and receive an x-ray examination. These x-rays are often reviewed by healthcare professionals without radiological expertise, due to the shortage of radiologists, resulting in a high error rate of up to 30% in this high-pressure environment.Saile Villegas has led a collaboration with NHS Grampian for two years to develop an AI-supported early fracture diagnosis system, named Fraxpert, to assist clinicians in confidently identifying subtle (hard to see) fractures. Seeai has completed a working prototype and the internal validation of the system showed detection performance to the level of expert radiologists.This project will take Fraxpert from a working prototype to a regulated product. Seeai will visit various hospitals (small-large, rural-urban) and research the optimal clinical pathway to integrate the AI. This investigation will also allow Seeai to identify potential customers.The support from the award will allow Fraxpert to effectively transition from R&D into a product that can be commercialised. Successful implementation of Fraxpert in hospitals will help healthcare providers cope with the shortage of radiologists and improve patient outcomes.This award will also provide an opportunity for Saile Villegas to equip herself with the business strategy skills required to successfully commercialise her innovation. In addition, the network of mentoring offered by the programme will allow her to learn from other women in innovation to improve her capabilities as a leader in innovation.