ROSEMERE Cancer Foundation contributed £55,000 to the set-up and first-year running costs of a healthcare technology firm called Annalise.ai 

The technology aims to help Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust with early lung cancer detection. The programme, led by Consultant Dr Stephen Slater, will be at five Trust sites including the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, Furness General Hospital, Westmorland General Hospital, Morecambe’s Queen Victoria Hospital and Ulverston Community Health Centre. 

Annalise will use their technology to detect and triage chest X-rays that have suspected lung nodules for immediate reporting. This is intended to expedite follow-up investigations and provide better patient outcomes.

Dr Slater said: “In 2021, almost 48,000 chest X-rays were performed across the Morecambe Bay sites. Due to the high pressures on radiology services, there is usually a waiting time of several days before a radiology report is issued.

"A recent spot check showed 800 unreported chest X-rays, the oldest of which was nine days. Annalise can be used to prioritise or ‘triage’ those CXRs showing urgent findings for same-day reporting, allowing us to act on important findings earlier, for example lung cancers.”

The Cancer Foundation has a specialist treatment centre at Preston, and local centres at Lancaster, Westmorland and Furness hospitals.