Patient Journeys in Health:
Bringing AI Along for the Ride
On 2 February 2026, AI MULTIPLY welcomed researchers, clinicians, patients, data scientists, public contributors, and community partners to The Catalyst in Newcastle for the end-of-project conference Patient Journeys in Health: Bringing AI Along for the Ride.
The day offered space to reflect on the progress achieved during the NIHR Artificial Intelligence for Multiple Long-Term Conditions (AIM) Programme, celebrate breakthroughs, and look ahead to the future of AI-supported care for people living with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs).
Setting the Scene and Opening Remarks
Co-lead investigators Prof Nick Reynolds and Prof Mike Barnes opened the event by welcoming attendees and acknowledging the consortium’s progress across three and a half years of interdisciplinary work.
They were joined by Prof Frances Mair, Chair of the AI MULTIPLY Research Steering Group. Prof Mair opened the conference with insightful remarks that grounded the day in the importance of collaborative, interdisciplinary research addressing multiple long-term conditions.
Why Research Collaboration Matters
The keynote was delivered by Prof Avan Aihie Sayer, Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC) Cross-NIHR Collaboration (CNC) Co-Chair and Co-Director of NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).
Prof Sayer’s keynote ‘MLTC and the Health of the Nation: Why Research Collaboration Matters,’ highlighted the growing national priority of MLTCs and the need for coordinated research efforts. By harnessing collective expertise, we have the opportunity to deliver research that can meaningfully improve the lives of people living with MLTCs.
Prof Sayer emphasised that MLTCs are now central to major government strategies, including the 10 Year Health Plan for England and the Life Sciences Sector Plan. She highlighted the significant personal and societal costs associated with MLTCs and the urgent need for integrated, data-driven approaches to improve outcomes.
A key focus of her address was the role of collaboration. As Co-Chair of the MLTC CNC, she outlined how this initiative, hosted by the NIHR Newcastle BRC and the NIHR ARC East Midlands, brings together NIHR translational, applied, and policy research infrastructure to identify shared priorities and accelerate progress. She also pointed to growing national momentum, supported by initiatives such as the UKRI-NIHR Strategic Priorities Fund and the NIHR Artificial Intelligence for MLTC (AIM) Programme, which funds AI MULTIPLY.
The Patient Perspective – Real Stories, Real Impact
A core thread running through the entire AI MULTIPLY programme was patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE). PPIE co–leads Olivia Grant, Victoria Bartle, and Ceri Durham were joined by the PPIE management group and shared how PPIE contributors have shaped every aspect of the project, including each stage from decision-making, evaluation, creative engagement, to dissemination.
From community-led evaluation to art workshops, animation, theatre, and technical involvement in data science meetings, the PPIE team what truly transformative involvement can look like and shared their contributions with the audience.
The session was facilitated by journalist Jeremy Armstrong. He directed questions to the contributors in lay language. This unique format added deep engagement with event participants and contributed to make the research accessible to the audience.
AI Insights into Health Data and Towards Clinical Translation
AI MULTIPLY researchers presented findings, methods and real-world impact by stepping into conversation with Jeremy Armstrong. His approach transformed the session from a presentations‑only format into something far more engaging and stimulating.
Bursty Dynamics in Healthcare
Alisha Angdembe and Prof Mike Barnes introduced a new way of understanding health instability by analysing clusters of diagnoses and care events in health records. Bursty patterns showed strong links to adverse outcomes, especially in older adults.
Intersectional Inequalities Scorecard
Prof Mike Barnes and Ceri Durham showcased a practical tool designed to embed equity into AI development by assessing dataset representation and model performance across intersecting populations such as ethnicity, gender, and deprivation.
Polypharmacy Workbench
Dr Rafael Henkin presented an interactive analytics platform that helps researchers and clinicians explore prescribing patterns, health outcomes, and inequalities in polypharmacy, enabling safer, more personalised care.
Readmission Prediction Using Self-Supervised Learning
A novel self-supervised learning approach to predicting re-admission, mortality, and hospital stay length using routine health records was presented by Rebeen Hamad, Paolo Missier, Prof Nick Reynolds.
Trial Emulation with Real–World Data
Prof James Wason and Ellen Moss used target–trial emulation to answer critical treatment questions (e.g., deprescribing decisions) in the absence of traditional trials.
Lurking, Soaking, Reflecting and Collaborating
Duncan Reynolds and Dr Megan Clinch took a sociotechnical look at how AI development is shaped by collaboration, ethics, explainability, and the social processes behind technical decisions.
Parallel Workshops
Participants then joined one of four interactive workshops. Each explored a critical dimension of the future of AI in the NHS.
Translation to Patient Benefit
This session was facilitated by Prof Adam Todd and Anum Iqbal and examined how AI could progress from promising models to trusted clinical tools. Questions focused on evaluating effectiveness, integrating AI safely into workflows, and ensuring adoption does not widen inequalities.
Data and Holistic Health
The group run by Prof Nick Reynolds and Prof Paolo Missier explored the rapidly evolving national data landscape, including Trusted Research Environments, OpenSAFELY, Secure Data Environments, and the National Data Library. Participants discussed risk, transparency, commercial access, and the importance of public trust.
Scaling Transformative PPIE
Claire Hills-Wilson and Fiona Cammack drew on the extraordinary PPIE practice established within AI MULTIPLY, this workshop addressed how to fund PPIE early and meaningfully, the urgent need to professionalise PPIE roles, ideas for a national PPIE hub, and strengthening leadership, evaluation, and shared frameworks.
Participants emphasised the need for structural support like two-stage funding models, clearer roles, and national coordination to help embed PPIE as a central pillar of AI-in-health research.
Interdisciplinarity and Capacity Building
The discussion facilitated by Duncan Reynolds focused on the realities of interdisciplinary teamwork across clinical, data science, social science, and public perspectives. They were weaved around the themes of embracing discomfort and knowledge gaps, developing shared working objects and reference points, the importance of trust and long-term relationships, and time and space for reflection.
Closing Reflections and Looking Ahead
In his closing remarks, Mario Moroso, Assistant Director of NIHR Research Programmes, emphasised the consortium’s achievements, the importance of continuing to highlight the importance of lived experience, and the potential for AI MULTIPLY’s tools and insights to influence national policy and practice.
We left the day with a shared sense of momentum and a clear roadmap for what comes next.