NHS to Use Palantir’s AI Platform to Cut Surgery Waiting Times Post Pandemic

AI platform company Palantir will see their “Foundry” software rolled out across 30 NHS Trusts following an evaluation at London’s Chelsea and Westminster hospital where it has been trialling its data processing technology. The 30 trusts have signed up to a more extensive national pilot, although the final number is still being decided.

At Chelsea and Westminster hospital, Palantir has brought together disparate information, such as the total number of patients waiting by clinician, theatre scheduling, and staff rostering and makes it available on a single platform.

The information on the platform then aims to help clinicians, schedulers, and operational staff see real-time information to help them make quick and efficient decisions on prioritising patients waiting for treatment or optimising theatre capacity to ensure more patients can be treated.

Palantir claims that so far it has helped enable a 28% reduction in the inpatient waiting list through validation and better clinical oversight. It also tripled booking lead times from 6 days on average to over 17 days, so that patients can be notified to come for surgery in a timelier manner, reducing the number of cancellations. Also, theatre utilisation has improved from 73% to 86%, over a three-month period.

According to NHS figures, around 6 million people are waiting for elective care – up from 4.4 million before the pandemic. Systems like Palantir’s will be used to help reduce these numbers if successful.

However, there remain concerns about Palantir’s involvement in an extensive number of military contracts which include weapons systems as well as their access to UK patient records and data.

The Number of Cyber Security Attacks Take a Step Up with Ukraine War

There is growing evidence of hacking campaigns linked directly and indirectly to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with the stories shedding more light on an opaque element of the invasion - cyberwarfare. Experts predicted that Russia would launch significant cyber-attacks in Ukraine, shutting down the country’s electrical grid for example. In the hours before Russian troops invaded, Ukraine was hit by never-before-seen malware designed to wipe data — an attack the Ukrainian government said was “on a completely different level” from previous attacks.

Reports of smaller forays are also beginning to emerge. Google said it had uncovered widespread phishing attacks targeting Ukrainian officials and Polish military. Security outfit Resecurity also shared evidence of a coordinated hacking campaign targeting US firms that supply natural gas (a commodity that has become critical as Western sanctions hit Russian energy exports). In both cases, attacks could be linked to groups associated with Russia and its allies.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said the phishing campaign targeted users of UkrNet, a Ukrainian media company, as well as Polish and Ukrainian government and military organizations. These attacks were carried out by groups including Belarusian outfit Ghostwriter and Russian threat actor Fancy Bear. The latter group is associated with Russian military intelligence agency GRU and was allegedly responsible for the 2016 Democratic email hacks.

Over the past two weeks, TAG has said it has observed activity from a range of threat actors that they regularly monitor, including FancyBear and Ghostwriter. The activity ranges from espionage to phishing campaigns. We believe the Cyberwarfare being used by bad actors which include entire nations will encourage robust AI cyber-defence spending for years to come.

Robots Serve Food and Drinks at 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing

To mitigate Covid-19 risks, Beijing Olympics organizers are taking an alternate approach to service. And cooking and bartending is just one of the many areas where robots are helping out. In a press release, the Beijing Committee stated that robots will be used for prevention and control measures. This includes "in accommodation, award presentation ceremonies, mobile vending, the delivery of goods and food items, the delivery of room services, the transport of medical equipment, providing guide and translation services, and patrol services, among other services."

In efforts to minimise person-to-person contact, meal venues resemble sci-fi movie junctures. Robots hang from the ceiling in the press cafeteria, serving select cuisines individually, while other robots are actually cooking and preparing meals. Giant arm-like structures deliver bowls of food from ceiling to table. After people grab their meals, the robots return to their ceiling locations. In another sector of the cafeteria, robots are acting as a barista to serve coffee and other drinks.

The automation can factor in the thousands of variations necessary to serve the needs of athletes from all over the world, with Chinese, Western and fast food options on the menu. And the ordering system is based on QR codes.

There has been much made of the automation of kitchen tasks and how robotics might fit into the restaurant kitchen of the future. In early 2021, Spanish company BR5 released launched robots that could cook paella, which attracted interest from hotel and restaurant chains. As the founder of BR5 said, their robots could fry potatoes, grill burgers, or even take up baking pizza and croissants.