BrainHealth_^X Hub launch showcases AI Innovation in Brain and Mental Health Care

An expert panel explore the possibilities, and challenges, of translating AI into the clinic for brain and mental health disorders.

The BrainHealth^X Hub, winners of the ai@cam AI-deas challenge 2024, is a new initiative which aims to accelerate progress in brain and mental  health by translating AI to drug discovery and healthcare. Rapid progress at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence provides an opportunity to transform how we understand, diagnose, and treat brain and mental health disorders.

The launch of the BrainHealth^X hub, at The Glasshouse, Innovate Cambridge, on Thursday, led by Professor Zoe Kourtzi and Dr Anna Moore Winter, in collaboration with AI@cam and C2D3, brought together a panel of clinicians, neuroscientists, as well as AI and neurotechnology leaders from across Cambridge’s innovation ecosystem. The panel was chaired by Dr Andrew Welchman and included Philip Teare, Dr Rozelle Kanne, Dr Kristin Anne Rutter, Dr Christoff Gaunt, Professor Peter Jones, Dr Sara Imarisio, and Dr Richard Milne. The panel explored “From Cloud to Clinic” - how AI, data, and neurotechnology can transform mental healthcare, and focussed on some of the key challenges faced by those working in this rapidly evolving field.

Several key topics were explored: bridging research and tools into healthcare settings and the challenges of deploying AI in real-world settings. Key insights emerged around the UK's competitive edge in health data, the need to rethink regulation for innovation, and the critical importance for "human on the loop" in AI oversight.

In relation to regulation, the panel discussed the need to resource Regulatory bodies to support innovation and deployment of emerging new technologies into healthcare. The opportunity to use digital delivery as a means of generating evidence for new tools in real world settings was also discussed. In relation to the ethics of innovative digital tools, the panel agreed that ethics can be enabling: rather than seen as a brake on innovation, they should better be understood as the navigation system.

The conversation underscored that while data is foundational, success ultimately depends on thoughtful translation and transformation of research into clinical practice to help patients at both local and global levels. Recent trends in the democratising data collection - especially the ability to collect these data in our living rooms rather than research labs - open up interesting opportunities, although open questions remain about how such data are monitored and validated. More generally, the panel recognised that merging multimodal data using AI can provide powerful tools for improvements in diagnosis and new treatments.

The panel closed by emphasising the opportunity to learn from clinical delivery and patient priorities: the patient and clinical benefit must remain at the heart of these discussions as they move forward.