CogStack launches its AI technology to transform global healthcare data

CogStack, a spinout venture born from collaboration between UCL, King’s College London and a coalition of leading NHS Foundation Trusts, has launched its innovative AI-driven platform which is set to accelerate digital transformation across the NHS and international healthcare systems.

CogStack’s mission is to improve data quality and utilisation to enhance patient care, safety, population health, and clinical research.

Its AI platform uses natural language processing (NLP) to generate deep insights from patient health records, supporting clinical decision making and healthcare research. The platform can search any structured or unstructured clinical data and assign diagnostic or treatment codes and medical meaning, based on particular words and sentences. Its models are trained on records from millions of real-world patients and fine-tuned by hundreds of thousands of clinician-supplied labels.

CogStack has been adopted by hospitals across London and in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton, Lancashire, and further afield in hospitals in Asia, Australia and Europe.

It has already brought about significant benefits in physical and mental health care through workforce productivity and automating data tasks:

- Fast-tracking recruitment for clinical trials – CogStack was cited as a key enabler for accelerated recruitment for the ‘100k Genome’ project, which needed patients with suspected rare diseases.
- Enhanced data efficiency – King’s College Hospital detected thousands of missing records of fracture clinic procedures in only 30 minutes.
- Accelerated medication reviews – saving more than two hours per pharmacy review at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
- Improved patient safety – University College London Hospital was alerted to 100’s of patients who were ‘lost-to-follow-up’ in their healthcare journey in a gastroenterology clinic.
- Improved accuracy in clinical coding – at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital outpatient procedures, delivering £2.5m in additional income to NHS Foundation Trust in 2023.

UCL Ventures supported the commercialisation journey of CogStack from its early research roots, helping secure IP, navigate funding pathways and connect with NHS partners.

Dr. Alberto Gatta, Business Manager, UCL Ventures, said: “The launch of CogStack reflects the collaborative efforts of UCLH BRC, UCL Ventures, and King’s Health Partners, underlining our shared commitment to advancing research into practical solutions for the NHS and beyond. It is thrilling to see how our concerted work is now facilitating the delivery of cutting-edge AI tools that enhance clinical workflows and enable better and more efficient use of health data for patient benefit.”

Prof Karl Peggs, Director of the NIHR UCLH BRC, said: “Congratulations to Richard and the whole team on the establishment of Cogstack as a new collaborative venture. This AI technology has already made a huge impact in the places it has been applied, and there is huge potential for impact in the future, in the UK and internationally. The establishment of Cogstack Ltd will fuel that further development and reach, and is a prime example of the important role that NIHR BRCs can play by investing in exciting science and supporting its commercialisation.”

Professor James Teo, CogStack’s Chief Medical Officer, added: “As a trusted, home-grown NHS innovation, CogStack is easy to deploy and delivers medically intelligent analytics at low cost. We aim to expand its capabilities to more NHS trusts and new markets.”