THERE are potentially huge benefits to patients with the use of AI in the NHS, according to Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

He was speaking after the Prime Minister landed in the US where he will discuss the regulation of AI technologies with president Joe Biden.

Mr Barclay told GB News: “There’s huge excitement and opportunity with AI. Look at that within healthcare. Things like strokes, for example, we can use AI to treat stroke patients, through using AI to pick up cancers that wouldn’t be visible to the human eye, an extra 20% detection rate for those that were too small for people to see, but the AI was able to detect and if you can detect it early, obviously the patient outcomes are far better.

“But alongside there are risks as well to AI so it’s important we don’t let those risks crowd out the opportunities. We need to look at this internationally to work with partners, including the US to get the right regulatory framework in place but there are huge opportunities for AI and in healthcare it is particularly exciting.”

In an interview with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he also said the Government’s £40m pilot scheme to tackle obesity with new drugs will also have an help get people back to work.

He said: “It has a big impact in terms of the workplace we know that staff absence is a big challenge with big costs. We know that obesity has an interruption in terms of mental health and people’s wellbeing, so there’s a range of health benefits.

“I’ve touched on cancer, diabetes, and mental health. So obesity really is a big impact on the NHS. We think it costs around £6.5 billion pounds to the NHS, but it has, as you say an impact on the labour market as well.

“And we’re in discussions with the OBR as to how we measure the potential of reducing obesity in terms of getting people back into the workplace as well and it’s about empowering patients.”

He added: “It has a big impact on people’s health. If people are overweight, where people struggle to lose that weight and to keep that off, this is a really exciting development.

“We want to make sure the NHS is at the front of the queue in rolling it out.”