The challenge

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in males in the UK. Early diagnosis of prostate cancer can improve chance of survival.   

In the South West, cancer pathways are under pressure from rising demand and capacity limitations, with patients often facing delays in diagnosis.

The solution

Pi™ (Prostate Intelligence) is an artificially intelligent software solution developed and managed by Lucida Medical. 

Pi™ supports the prostate diagnosis pathway by interpreting prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), automatically risk stratifying each patient based on the likelihood of clinically significant prostate cancer, and producing automated visual outputs and calculations to support clinical workflows.

Pi™ can be used to support the diagnosis pathway in different ways:

• To automatically book high-risk patients for the next available biopsy at a pre-determined Pi™ score threshold (bypassing MRI reporting and administration)
• To enable radiologists to prioritise patients at greatest risk of prostate cancer when reporting MRI results, and providing a ‘second read’ for clearer negative cases (previously done by a second radiologist)
• To produce 3D heatmap images and calculate the prostate volume to support biopsy decisions and procedures.

At Musgrove Park Hospital, part of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Pi™ is being used as one part of a broader programme to improve efficiency and quality of urology cancer services, including prostate cancer.

The Pi™ software is automatically cutting out the MRI reporting and usual bookings processes for some high-risk patients. 

Our work in partnership

In 2025-26 Health Innovation South West worked with Lucida Medical and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to evaluate the implementation and impact of Pi™ in its real-world setting at Musgrove Park Hospital. We provided evaluation and innovation support to Lucida Medical through our Cancer Innovation Challenge. 

Our impact so far

Findings from our evaluation in 2025-26 show:

• Strong accuracy of Pi™ in supporting clinicians to prioritise cases for reporting and biopsy, and that it can shorten wait times for biopsy among those at greatest risk
• Saving time for radiologists with automated analyses and validating interpretations (providing a ‘second read’), and for urologists by providing heat maps for use during biopsy.
• Negative impacts on nurse time, alongside common implementation challenges (such as ongoing data infrastructure) and current limitations of the technology.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust were an early adopter of Pi™ and the support from the Cancer Innovation Challenge has been critical in generating the evidence to show how Pi™ can best support the delivery of their 28-day prostate cancer pathway.

This work has supported the business case for scale and spread of Pi™ across the NHS and has already led to engagement with other NHS Trusts who are very keen to see the results.”

Lucy Davies, VP of Clinical, Lucida Medical

What’s next?

The learning from our evaluation has fed into the large-scale roll-out of Pi™ across 12-15 NHS sites in this year, and spotlights the South West as a test bed for innovative health solutions. 

With more NHS sites welcoming Pi™, the journey and development of this AI solution to speed up cancer diagnostics across the country is only just beginning.