Current Climate & Challenges
Radiology is under exceptional strain across the NHS. Over 430,000 patients waited longer than 6 weeks for imaging in early 2025—the highest since records began. Delays in MRI and CT reporting are now a leading contributor to diagnostic backlogs across urgent and cancer care pathways.
Meanwhile, radiologist vacancies remain critical, with some trusts reporting over 29% unfilled posts, exacerbated by a surge in demand from Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), virtual wards, and early detection programmes.
Technological variation also presents challenges: many trusts still operate on fragmented PACS systems and legacy RIS software, limiting cross-ICS interoperability. While AI and digital triage tools show promise, implementation remains inconsistent and often under-evaluated.
Timeliness of the Event
The NHS 10-Year Health Plan, released in July 2025, places diagnostic imaging at the heart of healthcare reform. It supports the shift from hospital to community care, analogue to digital workflows, and reactive to preventive care. The Plan commits to:
- Full PACS interoperability across all ICSs by 2028.
- AI-enabled image triage and digital workflow scaling in CDCs.
- A £3.4 billion capital investment into diagnostic technology.
- Expansion of virtual ward imaging support and decentralised radiology access.
This summit comes at a pivotal time—when policy direction is clear, but delivery requires unified leadership, scalable innovation, and practical governance.
Key Subjects Covered
- Workforce solutions: Tackling the radiologist and radiographer shortage through skill mix, automation, and training pathways.
- AI and digital imaging: Evaluating real-world use cases for AI triage, decision support, and risk stratification in radiology reporting.
- PACS and interoperability: Migrating toward a unified, cross-ICS imaging infrastructure with modern RIS and VNA solutions.
- Community & virtual imaging: Supporting radiology in CDCs, home care, and virtual wards, and enabling image-led decision-making outside hospitals.
- Governance & safety: Managing risks, reporting delays, and ethical considerations in AI deployment and outsourced reads.
- Pathway redesign: Imaging's role in accelerated cancer diagnosis, CVD prevention, musculoskeletal triage, and frailty management.
Why Attend
This summit is vital for NHS imaging leads, ICS diagnostics directors, radiologists, radiographers, commissioners, and tech providers who want to:
- Understand how radiology aligns with the NHS 10-Year Plan and diagnostics strategy.
- Learn from case studies scaling AI, PACS modernisation, and CDC deployment.
- Discover tools for improving radiology workflow, turnaround times, and workforce capacity.
- Explore governance, safety, and clinical assurance frameworks for digital imaging.
- Collaborate with peers across systems to future-proof NHS imaging.
- Take away strategic templates and operational toolkits for radiology transformation in your trust or ICS.
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