Improving treatment of psychosis with AI – our new project partnership with NCAP

We’re pleased to announce our new project partnership with the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis (NCAP), run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, to explore how AI can predict treatment outcomes and patient improvements for those suffering with psychosis.

Faculty and NCAP will develop new ways health inequalities can be analysed, and inform psychiatric care by examining some of the factors that might influence treatment outcomes for patients with first episode psychosis. 

It is hoped that patients suffering from psychosis and other mental health conditions could be set for improved patient care as a result.

An annual audit conducted by NCAP highlighted that over a third of Early Intervention in Psychosis Teams do not have a written strategy to identify and address mental health inequalities. The partnership between Faculty and NCAP is hoped to bring new recommendations to help address inequalities.

The first project, currently underway, is using anonymised datasets provided by NCAP, containing factors such as age, gender and ethnicity. Analyses were undertaken – using regression analysis and statistical analysis – to assess which treatment options and patient characteristics are most likely to influence a change in the severity of an individual’s mental condition. This change is measured using HoNOS (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales) scores – a method of measuring the health and social functioning of people with severe mental illness. 

The partnership comes as part of our industry-leading Fellowship programme that places the UK’s brightest data science talent in industry and public bodies. Jamie Welsh, Computer Science graduate from University of Portsmouth, launched the start of the partnership with a six-week placement with the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis. The current project is set to continue over the coming months 

Dr Dasha Nicholls, Clinical and Strategic Director for NCAP at Royal College of Psychiatrists, says: “We are excited that the partnership with Faculty AI provides an opportunity to analyse data from thousands of people with first episode psychosis and will help us understand more about whether health inequalities play a role in treatment outcome.”   

Danny Keenan, Medical Director at HQIP, says: “This is exciting work – using Artificial Intelligence techniques to delve deeper into how the data can be used to explore health inequalities and their relationship to treatment outcomes will enhance the impact of the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis.”