Across the 57 case studies in this dataset, a consistent pattern emerges. The deployments with the strongest outcomes are not the biggest or most complex. They are the ones that solved a specific, well-defined problem — a patient who would otherwise wait 18 months for an ADHD assessment, a care home resident whose deterioration would go undetected until an emergency call, a ward where 90 minutes per shift was being lost to paper handovers.

SMEs are behind many of the most significant results. Locum's Nest saved Ashford and St Peters £10 million in agency costs. Feebris cut emergency call-outs in South West London care homes by 50%. Healios cut assessment waits from 18 months to 4 weeks in Berkshire. Brainomix doubled the number of stroke patients receiving thrombectomy in Hampshire. These are not marginal improvements — they are structural changes to how care is delivered.

The common thread is not the technology. It is the clarity of the problem being solved, the specificity of the outcome being measured, and the honesty about what changed and for whom.

Editor's view · NHS · 2026
"The NHS has more technology pilots than almost any healthcare system. The question is never whether something worked in a trial. It is whether it worked at scale, for the patient in front of you, in a system that was not designed for it."
1,000+
bed days saved — Northamptonshire virtual ward / Doccla
£3m
agency costs saved — Ashford & St Peters / Locum's Nest
100%
increase in thrombectomy — Hampshire / Brainomix AI stroke detection
18→4
months to weeks — ADHD assessment wait / Berkshire / Healios
80%
less admin time — Great Ormond Street / Tortus AI clinical notes
50%
fewer emergency call-outs — South West London care homes / Feebris