AI in Digital Healthcare: How we can use AI to enhance, not replace, clinical decision-making

Hi Phil. Can you give us your take on the status of AI in healthcare in the UK?  

Yes, of course! With the shared ambitions across UK health systems for digital innovation and efficiency and with the NHS ambition to become “the most AI-enabled care system in the world” we really are at a transformative time in healthcare. This is equally a really exciting time for us here at FDB, as over the next few years we predict that AI will enable clinical decision support to become even more personalised, more efficient and more proactive.

As the UK’s leading provider of medicines-related clinical decision support solutions to the NHS for over 40 years, at FDB we’re uniquely positioned to lead this charge where accuracy, context and safety are paramount.

Can you tell us a bit more about how AI will help support clinical decision support capabilities and how FDB helps with this?

We’ve spent decades at the heart of clinical informatics. Our deep integration across NHS workflows means we’re already providing solid foundations on which intelligent, AI-driven clinical decision support (CDS) can safely evolve.

Drilling down a bit more and looking at how AI will help CDS become more personalised - it will be able to draw on longitudinal patient data and real-world evidence. It will also enable CDS to become more efficient by reducing alert fatigue through smarter, data-driven prioritisation. Proactive care will be more forthcoming as it will identify potential medication risks and optimisation opportunities before they arise.

We know that by embedding AI capabilities into our existing and proven content we can move beyond static rules and toward context-aware recommendations that reflect each patient’s clinical picture in real time.

What’s really important here though - and always at the forefront of our minds - is our mission at FDB to empower clinicians with the world’s most trusted medical knowledge that’s available. That revolves around having the most relevant, reliable and responsible decision support. Using AI in this way won’t be replacing clinical judgement - it will be strengthening and supporting clinical judgement – and we’re ready to help make this vision a reality.

That’s really exciting Phil! But what needs to be done to make this vision a reality?

As we enter the next phase of the NHS’s AI journey, meaningful change will come not from technology alone, but from applying it where it can truly make a difference. At FDB, we’re all about enhancing clinical decision-making by embedding intelligence safely and seamlessly into everyday care.

We’re beginning this journey by integrating clinical decision support into ambient voice technologies - or AVT - and adding a new layer of clinical insight to workflows that have historically lacked structured guidance. The time savings associated with AVT-enhanced consultations are well documented and we plan to take this a stage further and enable clinicians to gain instant access to evidence-based recommendations to support decision-making, improving safety and supporting better patient outcomes.

This will be quickly followed by the introduction of medicines-focused clinical co-pilots. These are AI-driven assistants that offer tailored, context-aware guidance across key clinical workflows such as medicines review and medicines reconciliation. These co-pilots will help clinicians manage complexity more effectively, surfacing the most relevant insights, reducing administrative burden, and enabling more time for direct patient care.

In short, our focus is clear, to improve safety, empower clinicians and deliver workflow efficiencies!

That’s so exciting … how do you make sure that the AI stays very much in the hands of the clinicians using it?

While AI is reshaping healthcare, experience and trust remain fundamental to safe and effective clinical decision support. Long-standing partners like FDB bring the clinical rigour, governance frameworks and domain expertise essential for integrating AI responsibly into frontline care.

For decades at FDB, we’ve encouraged clinicians to be within every stage of our software and clinical content authoring in order to deliver a robust foundation of deterministic algorithms, ensuring every recommendation is transparent, explainable and clinically validated. This depth of understanding in medicines data, clinical workflows and NHS systems provides a uniquely reliable platform on which to layer AI innovations.

FDB’s approach of blending human expertise, proven CDS logic and advanced AI capabilities will uniquely ensure that the next generation of CDS remains intelligent, safe and accountable.

Our goal is simple: make AI work for the people who matter most - patients and clinicians. That means freeing up time for care, improving real-world decisions and making sure every insight is grounded in evidence and trust. We’re not just adopting AI; we’re using it to make healthcare more human.