Photo: (Left to right) Dr Seamus Coyle, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust; Lynn Greenhalgh, Director of Strategy for Research, Innovation and Precision Medicine Liverpool Adult Acute and Specialist Providers; Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive, Health Innovation North West Coast; and Dr Vinoth Sankar, Deputy Clinical Director of Innovation, NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group. Seamus and Vinoth each hosted the breakout showcases.
The inaugural AI in Healthcare Symposium welcomed over 200 delegates to The Spine, Royal College of Physicians, in Liverpool on Thursday 26 June 2025.
Its purpose was to be a platform for Cheshire and Merseyside healthcare professionals, academic partners and industry to shape a local AI ecosystem, promote its responsible use, and leverage its opportunities in patient care, operational efficiency and research.
The event was co-led by Health Innovation North West Coast and the NHS Liverpool Adult Acute and Specialist Providers (LAASP), which includes the University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, the Walton Centre, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.
View the event guide for the full agenda, speaker bios, showcase breakouts and more.
Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive of Health Innovation North West Coast, said: “It’s clear we have a lot home-grown digital talent in the north west, and the collaboration that you’ve seen for this event between the NHS, industry partners and the academic community shows that there is so much enthusiasm for the potential of AI. Harnessing this is something we can achieve together. It was a pleasure to co-host this event with LAASP and there will undoubtedly be more events like this to come.”
Lynn Greenhalgh, Director of Strategy for Research, Innovation and Precision Medicine Liverpool Adult Acute and Specialist Providers, said: “The AI in Healthcare Symposium has brought together many colleagues across the ecosystem to talk about this important topic and how best we can use this new technology for our patients and public. Many conversations were had, and many new connections were made. The energy in the Symposium was great and now we need to turn that energy into action.”
Jenny Crooks, Deputy Managing Director at Liverpool Health Partners, said: “An event like this shows industry that Liverpool is a place that is open for AI innovation. We've got an energy and optimism around the capabilities and opportunities with a digital and AI. Today we saw this play out beautifully in one earlier discussions earlier, when you get a number of innovators in a room, that cross pollination of ideas and problem-solving allows you to an opportunity to do things at scale and that is something really exciting around the University Hospitals of Liverpool Group.”
Matt Connor, Group Chief Digital Information Officer, University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, said: "It's a privilege to be part of such an innovative and interesting event with a real, diverse set of stakeholders and talents within the room, all with the same intention of maximising these innovations: AI for the benefit of our populations. There is a passion for doing something different. How do we harness that and do it in a deliberate control and safe way? I think this is a real kick start now and it gives us a platform to build from in the future."
Ben Martyn, Executive Lead for Investment and International Partnerships at Northern Health Science Alliance, said: “Being able to get together and understand how to build AI, how to build trust and deploy it in an organisation are huge challenges and I think getting everyone here to discuss that is fantastic. AI is obviously here to stay so we're here to support our members and the NHS to understand how to take this new technology and apply it as best as they can for patient benefit. Today has shown that there's more happening around the use of AI than I was aware of. Showcasing that kind of best practice and front runners in driving change has been really valuable.”
The event was sponsored by Cisco and Dell Technologies. Thank you for their support.
Dr Shankar Sridharan, NHS England's National Clinical Lead for Artificial Intelligence, and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Great Ormond Street Hospital, joined remotely to talk about deploying generative AI in a clinical environment.
Professor Iain Buchan, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation, W.H Duncan Chair of Public Health Systems, University of Liverpool, presented: AI for Health - A learning system approach.
Cisco had two breakout sessions: Experimenting with Agentic AI to drive incremental improvements in productivity; and patient and carer engagement using AI-enabled chatbots and omni-channel communications.
A representative from Trustmarque solutions, introduced the creation of AI “Agents” in Microsoft CoPilot to help healthcare professionals work better and faster by complete regular, but complex and time consuming tasks.
Robert Firth from STFC Hartree Centre discusses "What do we need to be aware of in AI (ethics, trustworthy and transparency)?"
Ruojun Zhang, PhD student from the University of Liverpool presents: "Using AI to enhance tumour segmentation in Hodgkin’s lymphoma when data is scarce"
The afternoon's panel: Governance - The responsible development and deployment of AI systems. It was chaired by Declan Hadley, Healthcare Lead UK and Ireland, Cisco, and included:
- Dr Vinoth Sankar, Deputy Clinical Director of Innovation – NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group
- Matt Connor, Group Chief Digital and Information Officer - NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group
- Professor Iain Buchan, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation / W.H. Duncan Chair of Public Health Systems – University of Liverpool
- Professor Richard Harding, Business Development Manager - UKRI: STFC: The Hartree Centre
Andrew Bowdler, Principal Data Analyst at MIAA, presented a session in the afternoon on AI and data privacy. He said: “[The AI in Healthcare Symposium was] a fantastic gathering of professionals at the intersection of digital health, ethics, and innovation… Before we get swept away by frameworks and futuristic aspirations, we must first ensure our foundations are legally sound, ethically robust, and operationally auditable… Let’s keep driving NHS innovation responsibly.”
Matt Connor, Group Chief Digital and Information Officer - NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group presents: An AI framework for LAASP – the balance between governance and innovation
Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive, Health Innovation North West Coast, closes the day.
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