Scientists to use AI to analyse 1.6m brain scans to develop tool predicting dementia risk

Scientists are to analyse more than a million brain scans using artificial intelligence with the aim of developing a tool to predict a person’s risk of dementia.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Dundee will examine CT and MRI scans of patients from Scotland captured over more than a decade, as part of a global research effort called NEURii.

The team will use AI and machine learning to match the image data with linked health records to find patterns that could help doctors better determine a person’s risk of developing dementia.

The number of people living with dementia globally is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and researchers warn this presents a rapidly growing threat to health and social care systems. Health and social costs linked to dementia already exceed $1tn (£780bn) a year, research shows.

The scientists aim to create digital tools that radiologists can use when scanning patients to determine their risk of dementia and diagnose the disease and related conditions earlier.

The tools could also help speed up the development of more precise treatments for dementia, they said.

Prof Emanuele Trucco, an expert in AI and medical imaging at Dundee, said: “This new data set will be of great use to neurological researchers.

“Should we establish a successful proof of concept, we will have a suite of software tools that are smoothly and unobtrusively integrated with routine radiology operations that assist clinical decision-making and flag the risk of dementia as early as possible.”

Up to 1.6 million images will be scanned, with the approval of the public benefit and privacy panel for health and social care, part of NHS Scotland.

The data will be held in the Scottish National Safe Haven, commissioned by Public Health Scotland to provide a secure platform for the use of NHS electronic data for research.

The project co-leader, Prof Will Whiteley from Edinburgh’s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, said: “Better use of simple brain scans to predict dementia will lead to better understanding of dementia and potentially earlier diagnosis of its causes, which in turn will make development of new treatments easier.

“Currently treatments for dementia are expensive, scarce and of uncertain value. If we can collect data from a large group of people at high risk, who then give their consent to take part in trials, we can really start to develop new treatments.”