THE ARISING · Longevity & Healthspan
UK Launches £20 Million AI Hub for Earlier Dementia Diagnosis
Dementia is often diagnosed late, and about one-third of people living with it in the UK have never had a formal diagnosis. A new £20 million research hub plans to build artificial intelligence tools inside NHS clinics to find the earliest signs of the disease.
The hub is called BRAINIAC. According to Newcastle University, it is funded with £10 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. Industry, charity and NHS partners will add a further £10 million. The University of Exeter leads it, with researchers from 11 universities and 10 NHS sites across all four UK nations.
The need is large. Around 982,000 people in the UK live with dementia, a figure projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040. Annual costs are expected to rise to more than £90 billion over the same period. Many people also face long waits for specialist assessment.
BRAINIAC will develop AI systems that combine several kinds of information into one picture of a person's brain health. These include blood biomarkers, brain imaging, genetics, electronic health records and digital cognitive assessments. Blood tests can now detect signs of Alzheimer's disease years before symptoms appear, according to the university. The AI tools will be built and tested directly in NHS brain health clinics.
Over six years, the hub will support 10 new brain health clinics. The first are expected to open in 2029 and will initially be reached through NHS referral. The hub will work with more than 1,700 patients. Its aims are to cut assessment and diagnosis times by 30–50 per cent and to identify more than 40 per cent of people at risk before symptoms develop. It also plans to let people complete assessments at home through online platforms and apps. These figures are goals set by the project, not results.
The clinics will be linked through secure systems that let hospitals share AI models without sharing patient data. The hub also aims to create one of the UK's largest trial-ready groups of patients for dementia research.
Professor David Llewellyn, the hub's director, said the tools "will let us pick up the first signs before symptoms show and offer people a personalised prevention plan." Professor Chris Fox, deputy director and a practising clinician, said: "The treatments now arriving only help if we find people early." Dr Judith Harrison of Newcastle University said the aim is to give people more time to make informed decisions about their health.
People living with dementia and carers will help design the technologies, working with Innovations in Dementia. Alzheimer's Society will support efforts to bring successful tools into NHS practice. The hub will also train more than 200 clinicians and engineers and support between 10 and 20 small companies.
Next to watch are the first BRAINIAC clinics, expected from 2029, and whether the project meets its diagnostic targets.