The NHS has announced the expansion of its COVID-19 research platform, OpenSAFELY, to help find new treatments for other major diseases.

The widening of the service could lead to the discovery of new treatments for other major conditions, including cancer, diabetes and asthma.

Supported by GPs and academic researchers, the expanded service will allow scientists to securely analyse data in GP systems and will help researchers further understand medicines, treatments and patient outcomes to support clinical practice and provide important evidence on effective prescribing.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, academic researchers used anonymised NHS data to identify new treatments for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and establish the best ways to keep communities safe.

Along with developing vaccines against the virus, the platform also helped the NHS prioritise care for the most vulnerable.

NHS England’s OpenSAFELY service, which was used to deliver insights throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has enabled over 150 research projects from 22 organisations.

Developed in collaboration with the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, the service works to keep patient data confidential and secure.

Looking beyond COVID-19 and building on the government's Data Saves Lives Strategy, the NHS will carefully test which types of research services could be supported to support safe access to data for life-saving research.

The NHS has announced that it is trialling an AI system to help boost NHS winter responses and prevent avoidable admissions to hospitals.

The system will help identify patients most at risk, reduce pressure on A&Es and prioritise patients most in need.

Four GP practices in Somerset are currently trialling the AI system, which identifies patients with complex health needs, those at risk of hospital admission or who rarely contact their GP.

Health coaches, nurses and GPs will contact those most at risk to provide several preventative care options, including offering vulnerable patients food parcels, escalating care to specialist doctors, providing support to prevent falls, or providing access to local voluntary groups to help avoid loneliness.

Patients can decide whether they want to benefit from these options. The new approach follows recent data, which portrays the significant pressure that the NHS is currently facing as it heads into the winter period.

The data showed that October was the busiest on record for A&E departments and ambulance services.

So far, in Buckinghamshire, the NHS has been using AI linked to electronic sensors on kettles and fridges to monitor patients’ eating and drinking habits.