Preventative healthcare: discovery, development, and deployment of BRAVE AI in the South West
BRAVE AI is an artificial intelligence app designed to predict a patient’s risk of emergency admission to hospital. From first working with BRAVE AI in 2014, Health Innovation South West has fostered BRAVE AI’s development, and the app is now being deployed in over 30 South West areas by NHS Somerset.
The last decade charts a journey of successful adoption and spread of BRAVE AI in the South West, helping patients and health and social care providers focus on prevention rather than cure, while underscoring Health Innovation South West’s pivotal role in catalysing deployment of innovation in the local health and care system through discovery and development.
Bering Ltd.’s BRAVE AI app uses advanced algorithms to help predict a patient’s risk of emergency hospital admission, especially for those with complex long-term conditions. The app scores patients based on health complexity, using this data to highlight vulnerable people at risk of hospital admission and enabling proactive discussions between GPs, clinical staff and patients. With up to a 98% accuracy rate and 90% positive predictive value,[1] it surpasses existing statistical methods.
In 2014, Health Innovation South West awarded BRAVE AI a Phase 1 Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) grant to identify patients at risk of complex conditions, leading to additional Phase 2 funding in 2015 for prototype development, product testing, and partnership-building.
Learning from an evaluation by Health Innovation South West in collaboration with Apollo Health Evaluations provided Bering Ltd and the local system with an understanding of BRAVE AI implementation in multi-disciplinary teams in care homes.
Following a successful NHS Somerset-led pilot in care homes in Somerset [2] [3], which achieved a 35% reduction in resident falls, 60% reduction in emergency department attendance and 8.7% reduction in ambulance callouts, BRAVE AI is now being rolled out by NHS Somerset [2] to over 30 areas in the South West, including practices in Somerset throughout 2024. While Health Innovation South West is not leading this deployment, its role in BRAVE AI’s discovery and development has been critical in catalysing its progress to this stage.
In 2024/25, the Health Technology Adoption and Accelerator Fund (HTAAF), [4] supported by Health Innovation South West, has seen BRAVE AI nominated as the principle technology in a digital neighbourhoods programme of work designed to support the South West become the most digitally enabled region in England.
- The 2014 SBRI Healthcare competition resulted in the discovery of Bering Ltd.’s BRAVE AI, funding for feasibility work and prototype algorithm development.
- Phase 2 of SBRI Healthcare in 2015 supported prototype development, product testing and direct collaboration with early adopters at a clinical and public level.
- BRAVE AI is now being rolled out to over 30 areas in the South West, including practices in Somerset throughout 2024 by NHS Somerset.
- Digital Neighbourhoods is seeing BRAVE AI adopted by further GP practices across Somerset and now Cornwall, with Health Innovation South West supporting implementation and real-world evaluation.
Access to early adopters is challenging for health innovators. Working with the Health Innovation Network enabled our team to engage early with energised clinicians and citizens and inform key decisions around product development and commercialisation. Our collaborative work resulted in a product that has listened to the end user.
Dr Ignat Drosdov, Managing Director and Founder (BRAVE), Bering Research Ltd
