Evaluation informing national spread of AI to reduce emergency admissions

Highlights 

• BRAVE AI was originally piloted in the South West and is now spreading nationally.
• Health Innovation South West is undertaking a real-world evaluation of BRAVE AI deployment in Somerset, Herefordshire and Suffolk, to help inform its future spread and adoption strategy.
• By evaluating implementation at these sites in real-time, we can understand how local context and workflow shape adoption in practice.

Findings from a new evaluation by Health Innovation South West will help inform the future national spread and sustainability of an artificial intelligence platform helping health and care teams predict and prevent medical emergencies, reduce hospital admissions, and improve care for vulnerable patients. 

Developed by Bering Ltd in 2014, BRAVE AI is a population health management platform that uses machine learning to integrate and rapidly analyse routinely collected health and social care data. By enabling earlier, more targeted interventions, it empowers health and care professionals to deliver proactive neighbourhood care.  

The tool was originally piloted in Somerset, where an innovator- and site-led evaluation in care homes showed promising results: a 60% drop in emergency attendances, 35% fewer falls, and 8.7% fewer ambulance call-outs.  

Expanding on this success, NHS England South West supported the wider roll out of BRAVE AI as part of its Digital Neighbourhoods Programme and through additional support from the Health Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund (HTAAF). BRAVE AI is now implemented in 47 primary care networks across England. 

In collaboration with Health Innovation South West, the two programmes led to the platform being deployed and evaluated in Somerset, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Health Innovation South West supported the roll out and evaluation of early starter sites in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (CIOS) as part of HTAAF, working closely with the Digital Neighbourhood team and CIOS teams. 

Having worked with Bering Ltd for 12 years to support the development and roll-out of BRAVE AI, Health Innovation South West helped secure Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Phase 3 funding in 2025 for a real-world evaluation across three sites in Somerset, Herefordshire and Suffolk, which will be used to inform Bering’s spread and adoption strategy in more areas across the country. 

The national sites are implementing the platform across several cohorts, including care home residents, patients with frailty, dementia, those who are housebound, and those who have been identified through local area and deprivation-based health analysis. 

Approximately 150 patients have been reviewed, and the majority have received personalised care since last autumn as part of the early set up phase, demonstrating that identifying risk is leading to timely proactive intervention.  

Health Innovation South West’s evaluation and learning experts are working closely with participating sites to bring together implementation learning, patient experience, and early outcome data to provide a balanced assessment of impact and to inform future spread and sustainability. Our team has supported sites to define their evaluation focus, develop practical tools to track progress and support cohort management with multi-disciplinary teams, and ensure consistent data collection across the pilot.  

Alongside quantitative data on uptake and care planning activity, our evaluation will include interviews with key members of the teams to explore how the tool is being used in real-world settings, how it influences proactive care, collaborative working and decision-making, and what factors support or challenge adoption. 

Patient and public involvement is also a key component. We have co-designed accessible materials with patient representatives, conducted interviews with members of the public on their perceptions of BRAVE AI and proactive care, and fed back key insights to support programme communication strategies.  

Nic Ferreira, Evaluation Lead at Health Innovation South West, said:  

What’s been valuable about this programme is the opportunity to learn in real time. Each site has approached implementation slightly differently, which is helping us understand how local context and workflow shape adoption in practice. 

As an independent evaluation, our focus is on capturing that variation and providing a balanced, evidence-based account of what’s working, what’s been more complex, and what can reasonably be concluded from a six-month pilot.” 

The project is due to run until May this year and the evaluation published this summer. 

For more information in the meantime, please contact Nic Ferreira or Julia Darby, Programme Manager at Health Innovation South West.  

You can find out more about our work with BRAVE AI on our programme page.