AI startup Faculty wins contract to predict future requirements for the UK’s NHS
Faculty, a VC-backed artificial intelligence start-up, has won a tender to work with the NHS to make better predictions about its future requirements for patients, based on data drawn from how it handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2019, Faculty raised a $10.5M Series A funding round from UK-based VCs Local Globe, GMG Ventures, and, Jaan Tallinn, one of Skype’s founding engineers, giving it a valuation of around $100 million.
Faculty will work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to build upon the Early Warning System (EWS) it developed for the service, during the pandemic. Based on Bayesian hierarchical modeling, Faculty says the EWS uses aggregate data (for example, COVID-19 positive case numbers, 111 calls, and mobility data) to warn hospitals about potential spikes in cases so they can divert staff, beds, and equipment needed. This learning will now be applied across the whole of the service, for issues other than the pure pandemic response, such as improving service delivery and patient care and predicting A&E demand and winter pressures.