Alder Hey launches AI strategy for children’s healthcare services

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has launched an AI strategy to transform healthcare services for children and young people.

The strategy, published on 25 July 2025, includes plans for virtual assistants for families, to provide personalised routine care, including appointment scheduling, medication reminders, post-care guidance and symptom checking.

It also included the use of predictive models for early diagnosis and to detect risks such as deterioration or readmission, so that timely interventions can be provided.

Alder Hey’s strategy aligns with the government’s NHS 10 year health plan, published on 3 July 2025, which sets out how the NHS needs to modernise using AI, research and other technologies.

Kate Warriner, chief transformation and digital officer at Alder Hey NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Through our strategy, we are making a bold and exciting commitment to harness the power of AI to empower children, young people, families, and our colleagues at Alder Hey.

“Looking ahead, AI will support our teams by simplifying routine tasks, offering real-time insights and predictions, and automating notifications.

“This will help reduce burnout and free up more time for colleagues to focus on what matters most – delivering exceptional care to the children and young people we serve.”

The strategy outlines the use of AI to streamline administrative tasks and enhance efficiency for staff, including ambient AI for speech-to-text transcription and summarisation of consultations and personal AI assistants to support daily tasks and optimise scheduling.

Since January 2025, the trust has been running a seven-month pilot of the AI scribe Lyrebird Health, which records conversations between parents and clinicians to generate notes for electronic patient records and draft letters.

More than 11,000 consultations have used Lyrebird, with feedback indicating that it improved staff experience, reduced administrative burden and enhanced patient experience by allowing clinicians to focus more on direct interaction.

The strategy also seeks to revolutionise diagnostics through the development of AI-driven medical imaging solutions; the use of real-world data to support rare disease detection; leveraging genomics to support early diagnosis and tailored treatment plans; testing AI capabilities for diagnosing neurodevelopmental and cardiac in foetal medicine; and delivering real-time monitoring of vital signs through the use of wearables.

John Grinnell, chief executive at Alder Hey, said: “Our children, young people and families have told us they want care that is faster, more personalised, closer to home.

“Like all NHS organisations, we must develop if we are to provide children, young people and our staff with healthcare services that are fit for the future.”

Alder Hey has estimated that the strategy could result in a 20-30% reduction in administrative tasks for clinicians, potentially freeing up four-six additional hours per week for direct clinical interaction.

It also believes that AI-driven efficiencies could lead to annual cost savings or productivity increases of 5-15%, with AI-enhanced diagnostic tools projected to improve diagnostic accuracy by 15-20%, potentially preventing 100-200 adverse events annually.

The trust also aims to reduce waiting times by 15-20% through AI-optimised scheduling and resource allocation.