Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic tools in improving the early detection of skin cancer.

Through the National Cancer Plan the Government is committed to speeding up the detection and diagnosis of cancer, including skin cancer, ensuring safe use of artificial intelligence (AI) based decision tools.

The plan sets out how we will support pathologists to work more efficiently through a £604 million investment in digital diagnostics, including digital pathology, and £96 million in the automation of histopathology, as well as further investment in digital technology and AI.

Additionally, the NHS Cancer Programme is leading the national rollout of teledermatology to improve the speed of skin cancer diagnosis and increase productivity.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) routinely evaluates medical technologies, including innovative AI-enabled technologies, and makes recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of products for the health and social care services in England. NICE has recommended the use of an AI technology for assessing and triaging skin lesions for patients in the National Health Service suspected skin cancer pathway.

This AI tool, DERM, can distinguish between benign and cancerous skin lesions with nearly 99.7% accuracy, and is now being used in 25 NHS trusts as a part of the NHS's rollout of ‘teledermatology’. Further evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the tool is currently being collected.