Researchers from Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have used large sets of data, consisting of more than one million ECGs previously taken as part of routine care, to train their AI model to be able to accurately identify which patients went on to develop high blood pressure or related complications.

The team also found that the system could accurately predict which patients went on to experience a stroke, heart attack or even patients who died by simply using a score generated by the AI system that was independent of other clinical risk factors. 

Researchers will be testing the AI technology with NHS patients this year in clinical trials at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust hospitals, which are supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.

Lead researcher, Dr Arunashis Sau, a cardiology specialist registrar and academic clinical lecturer at Imperial College London, said: ‘If we can use AI to identify those patients at highest risk of high blood pressure, we can help motivate patients to make the right lifestyle changes to potentially prevent it from happening.'

The research team have recently demonstrated two other models developed with a similar approach – one which looked at how the model could predict health risks more generally and the other used it to predict the risk of developing diabetes. 

The clinical trials will focus on evaluating the benefits of implementing the model with real patients and will start by mid-2025.