In the skilled hands of oncologist Dr Raj Jena, artificial intelligence is saving not just time, but lives. Last year the specialist, who works at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the east of England, was appointed as the UK’s first clinical professor of AI in radiation oncology at the University of Cambridge.
In the first in a series of profiles exploring how AI is transforming specific jobs, he tells the Financial Times he now divides his week between seeing patients and researching technologies that hold promise to improve their care. In 2018, Jena co-devised with Microsoft a tool called Osairis that has hugely speeded up the process of planning treatment for those whose tumours are susceptible to radiation.
Across all cancer types, about 40 per cent of patients who are cured will have some form of radiotherapy treatment. However, plotting the correct route for the radiation beam, to ensure there is no collateral damage to healthy organs and tissues, requires precise calibration.