A GOVERNMENT-backed medical centre aiming to use artificial intelligence to help speed up disease diagnosis is set to open in Oxford next year.

The University of Oxford has secured £17.5m funding as part of a wider £50m project by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to increase investment in AI and improve patient treatment.

The Oxford centre will be one of four to open across the UK with others in Leeds, Coventry, Glasgow and London.

Technology will be used at the centres to digitise images taken during scans and biopsies as well as develop products that can help increase the rate of early diagnosis.

Business secretary Greg Clark said: “AI has the potential to revolutionise healthcare and improve lives for the better.

“That’s why our modern industrial strategy puts pioneering technologies at the heart of our plans to build a Britain fit for the future.

“The innovation at these new centres will help diagnose disease earlier to give people more options when it comes to their treatment, and make reporting more efficient, freeing up time for our much-admired NHS staff to spend on direct patient care.”

The centres will be based at universities and NHS facilities and will open in 2019.