The AI in Healthcare Seminars facilitate conversations on the wide-ranging application of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector.

Spanning the wide range of applications of AI in this sector, our mission is to gather anyone with an interest in AI in Healthcare together in a single group to discuss and promote how AI is to be actualised and taught in one of society’s most important roles, the health of the general public.

Based out of the University of Manchester, utilising the modern facilities of the Pankhurst Institute, we welcome anyone working in this domain to join us in one of the most exciting conversations currently being engaged.

Previous seminars

2 March 2025

Title: Workflow for Assessing Treatment effeCt Heterogeneity (WATCH) in clinical drug development.

The Pankhurst Seminar series, AI in Healthcare theme, welcomed Prof Niels Peek for a talk on September 26th at Vaughan House @ University of Manchester. Recent years have witnessed a rapid surge in research dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to support clinical decision-making tasks. While many of these algorithms have been crafted with precision and their accuracy validated through rigorous processes, there are concerns that their translation into routine clinical practice remains disproportionately limited. This gap between algorithm development and clinical deployment not only raises questions about the efficiency of research efforts but also prompts a critical examination of the factors contributing to this translational bottleneck. AI algorithms that fail to make their way into clinical practice, despite demonstrating high performance and validity, can be deemed as research waste. In this interactive lecture we will discuss translational research challenges in healthcare, specifically focusing on those associated with AI, review what is currently known about these challenges, and review strategies to overcome them.

Watch on YouTube: WATCH in clinical drug development 

27 November 2024

Title: Should we be seeking patient consent to the use of AI technologies in clinical care?

This talk looked at the reasoning for obtaining patient consent, considered how AI-enhanced care differs from ‘traditional’ care, and looked at the practicalities surrounding obtaining patient consent. The talk included a discussion of legal considerations but focused on the ethical questions surrounding patient consent and medical AI.

Watch on YouTube: Should we be seeking patient consent to the use of AI technologies in clinical care? 

26 September 2024

Title: Bridging the Gap: Challenges and Strategies for the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

The Pankhurst Seminar series, AI in Healthcare theme, welcomed Prof Niels Peek for a talk on September 26th at Vaughan House @ University of Manchester. Recent years have witnessed a rapid surge in research dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to support clinical decision-making tasks. While many of these algorithms have been crafted with precision and their accuracy validated through rigorous processes, there are concerns that their translation into routine clinical practice remains disproportionately limited. This gap between algorithm development and clinical deployment not only raises questions about the efficiency of research efforts but also prompts a critical examination of the factors contributing to this translational bottleneck. AI algorithms that fail to make their way into clinical practice, despite demonstrating high performance and validity, can be deemed as research waste. In this interactive lecture we will discuss translational research challenges in healthcare, specifically focusing on those associated with AI, review what is currently known about these challenges, and review strategies to overcome them.

Watch on YouTube: Bridging the Gap: Challenges and Strategies for the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

10 July 2024

Title: Scientific Reasoning in Oncology supported by Large Language Models (LLMs)

On 10th July 2024, the Christabel Pankhurst Institute’s (https://www.pankhurst.manchester.ac.uk/) AI in Healthcare Seminar Series hosted Dr Harriet Unsworth and Dr Andre Freitas from Cancer Research UK.

Dr Unsworth first presents “An Introduction to the Digital Cancer Research team at CRUK National Biomarker Centre” followed by a talk entitled “Scientific Reasoning in Oncology supported by Large Language Models (LLMs)” from Dr Freitas:

“In this talk, we cover how the emergent use of Generative AI, in particular LLMs, within the domain of the biomedical sciences can be used to augment and accelerate scientific reasoning and discovery in oncology research. We defend why the different innovative aspects within Generative AI represent a fundamental phase transition as an infrastructure to support scientific discovery and will uncover the modelling and architectural patterns which deliver controlled inference within the oncology domain.”

Watch on YouTube: Scientific Reasoning in Oncology supported by LLMs

21 May 2024

The Pankhurst Seminar Series, AI in Healthcare theme is delighted to host Professor Alex Frangi on 21st May 2024 at the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, in the Emmeline Suite.

Title: In Silico Regulatory Science for the Digital Era

The seminar is hybrid (in person or via Teams) with refreshments served afterwards.

Prof Frangi is the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, with joint appointments at the Computer Science and Health Sciences Schools. He is a member of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute on health technologies research and innovation. He is also the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies, with a focus on Precision Computational Medicine for in silico trials of medical devices. He is an Alan Turing Institute Fellow. His research vision was recently awarded an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. He also leads the InSilicoUK Pro-Innovation Regulations Network (www.insilicouk.org).

Professor Frangi’s primary research interests lie at the crossroads of medical image analysis and modelling, emphasising machine learning (phenomenological models) and computational physiology (mechanistic models). He is particularly interested in statistical methods applied to population imaging and in silico clinical trials. His highly interdisciplinary work has been translated into cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurosciences.

In this talk, Alejandro Frangi will overview our progress in the INSILEX Programme funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. We envision a paradigm shift in medical device innovation where quantitative sciences are exploited to carefully engineer medical device designs, explicitly optimise clinical outcomes, and thoroughly test side effects before marketing. In-silico trials (IST) are computer-based medical device trials performed on populations of virtual patients. They use computer models/simulations to conceive, develop and assess devices with the intended clinical outcome explicitly optimised from the outset (a-priori) instead of tested on humans (a-posteriori).

28 March 2024

Title: AI & Digital Healthcare Technology Framework

Speaker: Dr. Alan Davies has a background in Computer Science and Nursing and has worked previously in interventional cardiology and subsequently authored several medical text books on electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation. Alan has also worked as a software engineer/app developer in academia and industry where he more recently worked at the University of Manchester as a Data Scientist/Research Software Engineer before becoming a Senior Lecturer of Health Data Science in the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health. His research interests include workforce development, UX and the application of technology to healthcare and health related mobile application interventions. Alan is currently the programme director for the university’s new Clinical Data Science programme.

Abstract: Dr Alan Davies will discuss creation and application of the “AI and Digital Healthcare Technologies Framework” he developed for NHS England

Watch on YouTube: AI & Digital Healthcare Technology Framework

24 January 2024

Title: Enhancing the use of The Christie’s health data – a new 5 years strategy and integrated unit.

Speaker: Dr Fabio Gomes, Consultant Medical Oncologist specialised in the care of lung cancer; Director for Clinical Outcomes at The Christie.

Abstract: The Christie NHS FT as the specialist cancer centre in Greater Manchester has launched a new multidisciplinary Clinical Outcomes Data Unit (CODU) in 2023 to deliver on its new Clinical Outcomes Data Strategy 2023-2028. This unit is designed to enable and support the use of health data for the purposes of audit and improvement, alongside research and innovation.

Watch on YouTube: Enhancing the use of The Christie’s health data

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