An NHS health board has won the first-ever Public Sector AI Challenge, run by Futurescot in partnership with Storm ID.

NHS Forth Valley scooped a prize of £20,000 in consultancy services from the Edinburgh-headquartered digital firm – to develop a prototype for using AI to help identify key themes from complaints.

A business team at the health board applied for the competition during the summer, with the idea of using the technology to better manage and learn from complaints data.

They were shortlisted as one of three finalists in the Challenge alongside National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament.

Judges commended the high standard of all applications, but reasoned that the idea from the health board was ‘innovative, practical and highly scalable’.

It also has the potential to free up valuable time for staff to support patients and their families.

The judges said: “We are delighted to announce the NHS Forth Valley complaints processer as the winner of the AI Challenge 2024.

“The NHS Forth Valley team demonstrated an innovative and yet practical use of AI which we all felt has the potential to make a tangible difference to patients and staff.

“The team also considered in good detail how it could be embedded safely into day-to-day practices combined with a strong vision for how the use of AI can be extended and potentially scaled beyond their own team.

“We also felt it was a strong example of the type of innovation required to ensure NHS can continue to deliver services effectively in the future.”

The health board crafted their idea in order to ‘listen, understand and learn from feedback, leading to enhanced improvement opportunities and safer care for the Forth Valley population’.

The proof of concept focused on the complaints identification stage of the journey, and demonstrated how AI can be used to consistently and accurately identify and classify complaints for NHS staff to review, saving significant time and improving response times.

By using AI to help expedite data processing stages of an investigation NHS Forth Valley will be able to free up staff time to focus on the the most important human aspects of the complaints process and result in improved patient experience through earlier resolution.

Judges commended the other applicants, who appeared yesterday at Digital Scotland – the annual gathering for public sector digital professionals – at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. National Library of Scotland had proposed using AI to help audiences discover and connect with Scotland’s rich audio-visual heritage.

From left, Rob Cawston of National Library of Scotland, Amy Walker of NHS Forth Valley and Bill Ward of the Scottish Parliament

And the Scottish Parliament had sought to develop an AI system to transform the way citizens engage with Scottish Parliament live webstreams.

The judges said: “We were very impressed with all three applicants, who had clearly thought deeply about the way that AI can enhance their service offers.

“It just goes to show that the appetite for AI-led innovation is growing within the public sector, as more organisations come to realise the value of the technology in addressing multiple challenges, not least increased efficiency and time savings.”

“We would like to thank everyone who took part in the Challenge and we look forward to continuing this engagement in the near future.”

Visit here to find out more about the Challenge.

Photo credit: Robert Perry