A visit by Bill Gates to Queen Mary University of London highlights the importance of bringing together expertise across engineering, medicine and data science to tackle global healthcare challenges.

Queen Mary University of London recently welcomed Bill Gates, who met research students and discussed the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI).

During the visit, Gates praised Queen Mary's university-wide approach to AI, recognising the importance of involving researchers and students from disciplines beyond mathematics and computer science.

This interdisciplinary vision is reflected in research across the School of Engineering and Materials Science, where engineering, clinical science and computational approaches are brought together to address complex healthcare challenges.

Dr Tina Chowdhury, from the Centre for Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS), and the Digital Environment Research Institute at Queen Mary, leads collaborative research exploring how AI and linked electronic health records could improve our understanding of pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, preterm birth and stillbirth.

The research brings together engineers, clinicians and data scientists to investigate how routinely collected healthcare data can support the development of predictive tools, while addressing important questions surrounding data quality, population representation and health inequalities.

Dr Chowdhury commented:

"AI has enormous potential to transform healthcare, but its success depends on collaboration between disciplines. Bringing together engineers, clinicians, researchers and patients enables us to develop technologies that address real clinical needs. Equally important is ensuring that the healthcare data underpinning AI are representative and reliable, so that innovation benefits all communities."

Clinical PhD researcher presents maternal health AI research to Bill Gates

Dr Zara Arain, obstetrician and PhD researcher supervised by Tina Chowdhury at Queen Mary University of London, had the opportunity to meet Bill Gates during his visit and present their collaborative research on artificial intelligence and maternal health.

Our research combines clinical expertise, engineering and data science to investigate how linked maternal and neonatal electronic health records could support the prediction of pregnancy complications and improve maternity care.

Dr Zara Arain commented:

"Our research brings together engineering, clinical expertise and data science to explore how linked electronic health records and AI could improve the prediction of pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, preterm birth and stillbirth.

"AI offers exciting opportunities to improve maternity care, but we must also ensure that the data used to develop these technologies are representative, reliable and inclusive. Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to translating these advances into meaningful improvements in women's and babies' health."

Strengthening interdisciplinary partnerships

The research is undertaken through collaborations involving:

• Professor Greg Slabaugh, Professor of Computer Vision and AI, Director of the Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London.
• Professor Anna David, Professor of Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine and Director of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women's Health at University College London and Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine at University College London Hospital (UCLH).
• Professor Steve Harris, Consultant in Critical Care, Chief Research Information Officer at UCLH, Principal Research Fellow in Translational Data Science at UCL Institute of Health Informatics.

These partnerships bring together expertise in maternal and fetal medicine, clinical engineering, healthcare informatics and machine learning, helping to bridge the gap between AI research and its potential clinical application.

New Tommy's Funding to Advance Miscarriage and AI research

Building on these collaborations, the multi-disciplinary team have secured funding from Tommy's to support Olivia Law PhD investigating miscarriages, stillbirth and preterm birth using electronic health record and ultraview datasets, in partnership with clinical and academic collaborators at UCLH and Manchester Foundation NHS Trust.

The project will explore how routinely collected healthcare data can improve our understanding of miscarriage, with a focus on identifying relevant clinical information and strengthening the use of linked datasets in pregnancy research.

This new investment provides an opportunity to extend interdisciplinary research partnerships between Queen Mary and Manchester, supporting the development of more robust approaches to investigating pregnancy loss and informing future research into earlier identification and prevention.

Together, our research demonstrate how collaboration between engineering, medicine and data science can help address important challenges in women's and maternal health.

Bill Gates visit reinforces the importance of Queen Mary's interdisciplinary approach to research, education and innovation, creating opportunities for the next generation of researchers to translate technological advances into meaningful improvements in healthcare.

Read the official Queen Mary news story: Bill Gates visits Queen Mary to meet the leaders of tomorrow