NHS trials AI phone assistant Dora Care for patients with osteoporosis

The NHS is trialling an AI-powered telephone assistant to help clinicians monitor patients with long-term conditions, starting with people living with osteoporosis, Pharmacy Business reports. The assistant, Dora Care, uses generative AI to hold spoken telephone conversations with patients and could help with staffing pressures in NHS fracture liaison services.

The two-year project is led by Ufonia with Newcastle University and the University of York, and is funded by Innovate UK. Newcastle researchers studied how human clinicians show empathy so that Dora's conversations do not sound robotic, while York's Centre for Assuring Autonomy is building a safety framework to monitor the technology during the trial. The trial has medical and ethical approval, participation is voluntary, and the AI calls supplement existing NHS care rather than replace regular consultations.

"We are pushing the boundaries of how empathetic and safe autonomous clinical AI assistants can be used to support patients and clinicians," said Dr Aisling Higham, the project's chief investigator at Ufonia. If the trial succeeds, Dora Care could be extended to other long-term conditions, including diabetes, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the report. Osteoporosis affects about 3.5 million people in the UK.