Heart Diseases: Diagnosis
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) steps he is taking to support and (b) funding he has allocated to the rollout of AI-assisted stethoscope checks for heart murmurs in community pharmacies.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Artificial intelligence (AI) assisted stethoscope tools are currently being trialed in 200 general practices (GPs) across London and Wales, with trials set to end in December 2025. The AI in Health and Care Award and the National Institute for Health and Care Research provided £1.2 million in funding for these trials, known as the TRICORDER programme, which aims to assess whether providing the tool to GPs can increase the early detection of heart failure and reduce diagnosis through emergency hospital admission. Early results have shown these devices can test for heart failure with high levels of sensitivity, 91%, and specificity, 80%, compared to routine diagnostic tests that are invasive and expensive.
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