Mental health
Innovators are using AI to bridge gaps in breast cancer care
AI is increasingly being leveraged to address challenges in breast cancer care, from a “second set of eyes” during screening to enabling more personalised treatments. Innovators say it can not only deliver better outcomes, but also make medicine more accurate and accessible.
Breast cancer is the leading cancer in women globally, affecting around two million women, or one in eight, every year.
Early detection is critical for improving survival rates, with over 90 per cent of women surviving for five years or more when the cancer is diagnosed in the early stages.
However, research has shown that between 20 and 40 per cent of cancers may be missed through routine 2D mammography alone, particularly among women with dense breast tissue, which makes tumours harder to detect without specialist diagnostic tools.
AI is increasingly being leveraged to address these challenges, from enhanced imaging interpretation and risk prediction to personalised diagnostics and treatment planning.
On World Cancer Day (February 4), the NHS announced a ‘world-leading’ trial to test how AI tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier, with 700,000 women taking part at more than 30 breast clinics across England.
The EDITH trial (Early Detection using Information Technology in Health) is backed by £11 million of government support. It aims to double radiologist capacity, speed up results, and detect cancers earlier via algorithm‑based comparisons with historical imaging.
The technology will assist radiologists in identifying changes in breast tissue that show possible signs of cancer, enabling just one specialist to complete the same mammogram screening that would previously have required two to carry out the process safely and efficiently.
In a previous trial, involving 10,000 women receiving care through the NHS, an AI tool known as Mia identified small signs of breast cancer in 11 women which had been missed by doctors.
Announcing the EDITH pilot in February, Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care and CEO of the National Institute for Health Research, said the “landmark trial” could lead to a “significant step forward in the early detection of breast cancer”, offering women faster, more accurate diagnoses.
“A second set of eyes”
AI algorithms are now being widely used as “second readers” to analyse scans and flag abnormalities that might otherwise go unnoticed. Clinical trials in Europe and the US have demonstrated that AI-supported screening can increase detection rates while maintaining or reducing false positives.
A nationwide study in Germany, thought to be the first to use AI screening from the outset in a real-world setting, found that radiologists with access to AI technology had a 17.6 per cent higher rate of detection compared to the control group.
“The addition of AI has improved our ability to detect cancers years earlier, especially in women with dense breast tissue, where traditional mammography has limitations,” Dr Sean Raj, chief innovation officer at SimonMed Imaging, tells Femtech World.
Mammogram+, developed by SimonMed, integrates 3D mammography with FDA-cleared AI to generate up to 400 high-resolution images per scan, compared to just four in a standard 2D mammogram.
“The AI system in Mammogram+ acts as a second set of highly trained eyes, assisting radiologists in detecting potential malignancies,” Dr Raj explains.
“It works to analyse each image quickly and provide key data from a completely objective point of view, allowing our radiologists to build on perspectives they may not have had before.”
While the AI is enhancing its capability, human intelligence remains central to the programme’s efficacy.
“Our radiologists bring extensive expertise and clinical judgment, while AI provides a complementary, unbiased perspective,” Dr Raj adds.
“By working together, we achieve the best of both worlds, human experience combined with advanced computational analysis.”
While long-term outcome data is still being collected, SimonMed has observed promising early results from the implementation of Mammogram+, including increased confidence for radiologists interpreting images and patients receiving their results, he says.
Patients are also demonstrating higher levels of engagement in their care, which he puts down to the programme’s focus on delivering ‘clear, actionable results’.
Patients receive an easy-to-read report the same day, explaining breast density, personal risk score, and outlining a tailored action plan.
“We believe that when patients are provided with clear information about their breast health and a personal action plan outlining exactly what to do, they are more likely to take the next step,” he adds.
More personalised and effective treatments
Once a patient has been diagnosed with breast cancer, outcomes largely depend on having quick access to the most effective treatment.
But despite decades of advancements in the field, there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the question of which treatment a tumour will respond to.
“Part of the reason breast cancer is so difficult to treat is that no two tumours are alike. Even within a single tumour, cells can behave very differently, explained Wolfgang Hackl, translational oncology scientist and founder and CEO of Swiss startup OncoGenomX, in a recent editorial for Femtech World.
Hackl believes the decision lies in precision oncology, and with OncoGenomX, has developed a clinical decision support platform to personalise precision cancer treatment to enable individualised therapeutic decisions.
According to the company’s research, 56 per cent of women living with metastatic breast cancer are at risk of receiving suboptimal treatment compositions, leading to poorer clinical outcomes and avoidable cancer care costs.
OncoGenomX’s PredictionStar™ tool uses AI and machine learning algorithms to identify whether a certain therapy works in a particular tumour and finds the most effective treatment for each patient and their tumour. It has been found to reduce the over-treatment rate by at least 40 per cent, incurring a five-fold lower risk of cancer regrowth.
“PredictionStar takes away the uncertainty around breast cancer treatment decisions and increases the likelihood of opting for the most effective treatment combination without delay and without exposing the patient to the side effects of an ineffective treatment,” says Hackl.
AI and its role in the gender health gap
The potential of AI in healthcare extends far beyond breast cancer, with the potential to address other areas of medicine where women are underdiagnosed, undertreated and have poorer outcomes, such as cardiovascular care.
SimonMed has just launched a new AI-powered software that detects breast arterial calcifications (BAC), offering “enhanced care and a two-for-one mammogram”.
“Using the same screenings from the mammogram, we can detect the presence of BAC, providing dual insights into two of the biggest health risks for women, breast cancer and heart health, all without extra radiation or procedure time for the patient,” Dr Raj explains.
“For years, women have faced a gender health gap, affecting women’s access and affordability, misdiagnosis, and medical research bias.
“We’re excited by the possibility that AI can help us close that gap and improve health outcomes for women by having more accurate, faster tools for the detection and treatment and providing patients and their providers with more data and insights to make more informed decisions, sooner.”
He adds: “With the help of AI in women’s healthcare, like breast cancer detection, we will be able to improve health outcomes for women, making healthcare more accessible, affordable, and accurate.”
Urging caution – governance and collaboration
However, several experts and peer-reviewed papers have urged caution around the widespread use of AI, with risks including overdiagnosis, false positives, bias, and workflow disruption, highlighting the importance of regulatory oversight and ethical safeguards.
A review published earlier this year raised several concerns, including inconsistent performance, poor generalisability, lack of robust evidence frameworks, trust issues among clinicians, and gaps in legal and ethical governance.
The researchers concluded that more robust strategies are needed before AI can be scaled for routine use in breast cancer screening, making recommendations for a “comprehensive AI governance framework”.
“While AI has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, its broader implications include promoting equitable health care delivery, strengthening patient trust, and supporting the ethical development of AI technologies,” the authors write.
“Policy makers, clinicians, and AI developers must work collaboratively to establish adaptable and transparent systems that prioritise patient safety and societal benefits.
“Future research should focus on real-world case studies, longitudinal assessments, and cross-disciplinary collaborations to effectively refine and implement these governance strategies.”
By Somayeh McKian, a member of the clinical advisory board of Vea, the AI-powered mental health journal app
The danger of efficiency culture in women’s mental tech is that we are inadvertently optimizing the very patterns that drive our collective burnout.
When we look at the explosive growth of the femtech sector, the dominant narrative remains focused on speed, tracking, and passive compliance.
We build apps that treat a woman’s emotional state like a broken supply chain or a medical deficit that needs to be optimised, streamlined, or forced into submission.
But true psychological resilience cannot be quantified by a simple mood slider or an algorithmic checkmark.
As a psychotherapist and gender studies scholar, my research into the lived experiences of women, particularly how cultural mandates and bodily surveillance are pathologised, reveals a deep-seated form of suffering.
When women constantly say “yes” while meaning “no,” or ignore a chronically depleted body to maintain a rigid role, they are living out what I call an “inkless life.”
It is a blank manuscript in which their physical and emotional existence has been entirely authored by external critics, medical charts, and the “Discourse of the Other.”
They aren’t suffering from an efficiency problem; they have been stripped of the agency to author their own skin.
If femtech platforms simply digitise these rigid, externalised “shoulds,” they risk becoming high-tech tools of compliance rather than portals of liberation.
The investment community and health tech innovators need to realise that the next frontier of mental health tech isn’t about managing symptoms on the fly; it is about existential archaeology.
We must build digital spaces that serve as a “corporeal pen,” transforming self-reflection from a passive hobby into a defiant, existential act.
True innovation lies in helping women find the meaning, the latent metaphors, and the unique tasks already written into their struggles and transforming inherited pain into a human achievement.
This is exactly the structural paradigm shift we are anchoring at Véa. Instead of building superficial tracking logs, our architecture treats life as a manuscript.
We design clinical narrative journeys that help women decode where their internal boundary scripts were written, recognize how somatic depletion is a truth-teller, and wield phrases like “stop it” not as external policing, but as internal, defiant boundaries.
If we want to build a sustainable ecosystem for women’s health, we must stop funding platforms that merely help women endure their exhaustion more efficiently.
In the intersection of meaningful life and technology, we look at the human spirit not by its current restrictions but by its latent potential for change.
It is time to back technologies that give the fluent soul a sharp new set of instruments to rewrite its own narrative.
Somayeh McKian is a certified psychotherapist, in-training logotherapist, gender studies scholar, published author and part of Véa’s clinical advisory board.
A screen time app that lets friends cut their phone use together has won the £15,000 top prize in a women-led startup competition.
Snitch, led by design engineering MEng graduate Asha Bakhai, took first place at WE Innovate, Imperial College London’s flagship competition for women-led startups.
The team aims to tackle excessive screen use among young people, which some research suggests may have a negative effect on mental and physical health.
The app lets users join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most-used apps.
When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down. Its founders say this helps build awareness, encourages reflection and supports small changes in behaviour by making screen use a shared responsibility.
Speaking at the WE Innovate Grand Final, Bakhai, co-founder and chief executive of Snitch, said: “Thank you to all the people who have been involved with thinking about what it could look like for young people to not be addicted to their phones.
“Whether that’s our friends who we started this with – exchanging screen time passwords and things like that – or the users along the way who beta tested with us, or our families and our friends who we’ve forced to use our app, even though it failed and bugged out and blocked all their apps. Thank you to all of them – and especially, thank you to WE Innovate for making all of this happen.”
Snitch’s team also includes co-founders Serena Sebastian and Yoshiki Berrecloth.
WE Innovate is a six-month pre-accelerator run by Imperial Enterprise Lab for teams led by female students, recent alumni and early career researchers.
The programme supports 25 women-led teams through masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support and peer mentoring.
The top five teams competed for a share of a £30,000 prize fund.
Professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London, said: “WE Innovate was born out of the realisation that women founders were grossly underrepresented among our wider founder group across the university – so it was an imperative for Imperial to start such a programme.
“It was just last year that we heard Dame Alison Rose, author of the Rose Review, speak about the untapped economic opportunity and potential of women entrepreneurs in the UK.
“After 12 years, this programme has supported hundreds of women entrepreneurs, leading to exciting ventures across health tech, clean tech and all aspects of deep tech.”
The winning teams were selected by a panel including Kristen McLeod CBE, chief strategy officer at the British Business Bank, and Elizabeth Gooch MBE, founder and former chief executive of EGS plc.
The panel also included Pierre N. Rolin, founder and chief executive of Ankh Impact Ventures, and Professor Mary Ryan, vice-provost for research and enterprise at Imperial.
The final marked the second year of WE Innovate National, a UK-wide programme with separate Grand Final showcases held this month at Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Loughborough University.
Joanna Jensen, founder of skincare brand Childs Farm, gave a keynote address about her experiences as an entrepreneur and co-writing The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship.
The report found that the UK economy would be £310bn larger if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men.
Jensen said 78 per cent of the founders surveyed reported that human connection had been central to their journey, while one in seven identified loneliness as their biggest challenge as an entrepreneur.
She said: “That is why what Imperial is doing matters so profoundly. Not just here in South Kensington but as WE Innovate goes national.
“Because a founder in Loughborough, Durham or Swansea deserves the same access to networks, mentors, capital and belief as a founder sitting in this room tonight.
“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity, until now, has not been.
“A nationwide network for female founders, being backed by women and men, having doors opened for them by women and men, and then paying that forward: that is how you close a £310 billion gap.
“Not with one programme. With a system of programmes, joined up across the country, and held to account on outcomes.”
Waypoint, led by innovation design engineering MSc student Bana Quronfuleh, received the £7,000 second prize.
The team is developing a video game controller that allows visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games.
AlphaVectors Biotech, led by Imperial alumnus Dr Apanpreet Kaur, received the £5,000 third prize for its lipid nanoparticle platform, which aims to improve the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperature.
Lipid nanoparticles are tiny fat-based particles used to protect and deliver genetic material, including the RNA found in some vaccines.
The other finalists, FluoroCycle and Epile-X, each received £1,500.
PHlora LABS received the Lauren Dennis Award, which was established in memory of a pioneering WE Innovate alumnus, for developing a synbiotic suppository intended to prevent recurrent vaginal infections.
Synbiotics combine beneficial microorganisms called probiotics with substances known as prebiotics, which help them grow.
The award recognises a team demonstrating exceptional entrepreneurial spirit in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and includes a six-month business coaching package.
DisoLens received the Engineers in Business Award, sponsored by the Engineers in Business Fellowship.
The award provides each winner with £1,500 in grant funding, mentorship and a professional CV package for entrepreneurs working across engineering sciences.
The team is developing a self-dissolving biodegradable contact lens intended to remove the need for lenses to be taken out each day.
A £50m maternity consortium will bring together UK clinicians, researchers and communities to tackle the most critical gaps in maternal care.
Funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research has established the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium under the leadership of the University of Birmingham and Newcastle University.
Higher education bodies, NHS organisations, community groups and voluntary organisations from across the UK will work together through the programme.
The NIHR has committed £50m over five years to support research led by clinicians, researchers and communities across the consortium.
Professor Joht Singh Chandan, consortium co-lead for research at the University of Birmingham, said: “National attention on maternity safety and equity has never been greater, but ambition must now be matched by evidence and implementation.
“Through this consortium, we will work across the UK to understand what works, for whom and in what contexts, and to ensure that research leads to practical changes in care for the women, babies and families who need them most.”
The launch comes at a pivotal moment for UK maternity care, with growing national attention on improving safety, equity and women’s experiences of care.
The government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights the need to improve care before and between pregnancies for underserved communities.
Against that backdrop, the consortium will generate the evidence, interventions and research capacity needed to help turn national ambition into practical improvements for women, babies and families.
University of Birmingham is leading work to improve maternity care pathways across the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods.
Antenatal care covers pregnancy before labour, while intrapartum care refers to care during labour and birth.
The consortium will examine how women and families can be better supported before pregnancy and between pregnancies.
This includes improving access to advice and care that can help people prepare for pregnancy, manage existing health conditions and reduce risks before they build up.
Other research will focus on improving care during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks after birth.
This will include work on major causes of poor maternal health, such as high blood pressure, diabetes in pregnancy, obesity, perinatal mental health and complications during recovery after birth.
Professor Judith Rankin OBE, consortium co-lead for research and capacity development at Newcastle University, said: “This funding represents a critical opportunity to make the step change we need to improve outcomes for women and their babies.
“Alongside the research, the Consortium will be investing in tomorrow’s research leaders today to ensure we have the capacity to deliver on improving pregnancy outcomes, access to, and experience of, care.”
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