Scottish research team uses large pool of brain imaging data to build AI tool for dementia risk prediction

Data scientists and clinical researchers are to use brain scans from the Scottish population to build a software tool that they hope will be able to predict a person’s risk of dementia.

The team of 20, from the universities of Edinburgh and Dundee, has approval to use a unique, large dataset made up of CT and MRI brain scans from patients in Scotland from 2008 to 2018, representing 1.6 million images. Approval comes from the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care, a part of NHS Scotland.

The team will then use AI and machine learning to analyse the image data alongside linked health records such as demographics and treatment history, without patients being identifiable, to find patterns that could indicate a person’s risk of developing dementia.

The ultimate aim of the SCAN-DAN (Scottish AI in Neuroimaging to Predict Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease) project is to build a digital healthcare tool that radiologists can use when scanning for other conditions to determine a person’s dementia risk, and to diagnose early stages of related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Isolating a patient group with a high risk of dementia will enable the development of more precise treatments for various types of dementia.

The data will be held in the Scottish National Safe Haven, commissioned by Public Health Scotland, which provides a secure platform for the research use of NHS electronic data.

Picture: The SCAN-DAN team has access to 1.6 million images. Picture: University of Edinburgh.

See the full report on page 20 of the October 2024 issue of RAD Magazine.