Ireland’s first dedicated AI researcher in a clinical setting is working to enhance decision making in critical spinal injury cases

Senior AI Research Fellow at the Mater Hospital, Paul Banahan, is an Insight member from University College Dublin working under Insight Funded Investigator Professor Aonghus Lawlor.

Paul Banahan is unique in that he is the first specialised AI researcher to be embedded in an Irish hospital setting.  He is working on Generative AI to support emergency medical imaging access for people with spinal injuries.

There are very few 24-hour Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) centres in Ireland. Surgeons rely on MRI scans to make decisions on surgical intervention, and in the case of a suspected case of Cauda Equine Syndrome – Paul’s area of research – time is of the essence. Surgical intervention can mean the difference between recovery and permanent damage. Also known as disk herniation or ‘slipped disk’, it must be ruled out quickly given the risk of permanent injury.

Patients with suspected Cauda Equine Syndrome are frequently transported to Dublin for emergency MRI assessment. Banahan is researching ways in which AI can improve the imaging from Computed Tomography (CT) scans, which can be performed in any A&E unit in the country. These AI enhanced images can be used to support decision making about when an MRI scan is required, saving time, effort and resources.

These ‘synthetic MRI’ images, derived from CT scans, but enhanced by AI, can provide radiologists and surgeons with more visual data to work with when deciding whether to perform an MRI. The technology doesn’t replace MRI scanning but supports decision making around this high demand resource.

While AI is being researched in other clinical settings, Banahan is the first dedicated AI researcher to be embedded in an Irish hospital. Banahan is also working on projects in the fields of cardiac and neurology imaging at the Mater.

His work is supported by the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics and the Mater Hospital, where is works as part of the Pillar Centre for Transformative Healthcare. This project received a grant from the Mater Hospital Foundation and has recently won the Health Innovation Hub Ireland’s Clinical Innovation Award.