10 ***^ Thursday 1 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
By Sarah Knapton SCIENCE EDITOR
ARTIFICIAL intelligence designed by
Google DeepMind can now predict
deadly kidney injury two days before it
happens, in a breakthrough that could
save the lives of 30,000 NHS patients
each year.
Around 100,000 people in Britain
die annually from Acute Kidney Injury
(AKI), which occurs when the organs
stop functioning, creating a build-up of
waste in the blood, eventually leading
to death. It often occurs through
dehydration in hospital patients, but
until now has been difficult to predict.
Now, using the health records of
more than 700,000 army veterans in
the US, DeepMind has developed an al-
gorithm that spots nearly 60 per cent
of those who will go on to have AKI and
nine in 10 of those who will be so badlyaffected they need dialysis. Previous
NHS research has suggested that
around 30 per cent of kidney failure
deaths are preventable if caught early,
so the algorithm could prevent 30,
deaths in Britain each year.
In a separate trial at the Royal Free
Hospital in north London, the team de-
veloped Streams, a mobile phone app
that tells doctors on their smartphones
when patients’ kidneys deteriorate, al-lowing specialists to get to patients
within 15 minutes and cutting thenumber of missed cases by three
quarters. Dr Dominic King, health lead
at DeepMind AI, said: “Acute kidney
injury is one of the most avoidable
causes of patient harm.
“Thousands of patients die every
year. About 40 per cent of patients that
end up in the intensive care unit could
have been prevented from getting
there in the first place. If you think
about doctors’ and nurses’ work, it’sremarkable in 2019 that people are still
running around using pagers and it’s
often not until patients are really
unwell that they get a flag. The app
alerts the right expert.”
The team is now working alongside
Imperial College to devise a similar
alert for sepsis and are hoping to be
able to predict how long a patient will
need to stay in hospital so that proce-
dures can be planned more efficiently.TV producer graduates after
paying off 35-year-old debt
uA producer behind royal
drama The Crown has been
allowed to graduate from his
university 35 years after he
left, by settling an unpaid
fine imposed while he was
studying drama.
Matthew Byam Shaw, 56,
was due to graduate from
the University of Bristol in
1984 but never did because
of the unpaid debt.
Byam Shaw revealed he
jokingly handed a cheque to
a former professor earlier
this year in an attempt to
draw a line under the
incident. He later receivedan email from Hugh Brady,
the university’s vice-
chancellor, inviting him to
graduate alongside the 2019
crop of students on Tuesday.
He said: “It was only a
small amount, around £70,
for something silly like
unpaid laundry or misuse
of the props in the drama
department.
“I had a little quibble
about the fine and not being
able to graduate, but I
thought: ‘Life’s too short.’
“It’s nice to finally close
the circle in genuinely
happy circumstances.”News
Care system not fit for teenagers, says children’s tsar
By Gabriella Swerling
SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
GANG violence, sexual exploitation
and trafficking are forcing a rising
number of teenagers into care, the
Children’s Commissioner has warned.
The “explosion” in the number of
older children entering care over the
last five years has sparked concern that
the stability of the system is under
threat. The latest government data
reveal how the profile and needs of
children in care has changed, driven by
a growing proportion of older children
and teenage care entrants who have
more complex needs and potentially
more expensive living arrangements.
The Children’s Commissioner’s
Stability Index shows how the number
of teenagers (13-19 years old) in care
rose by 21 per cent between 2012-13 and
2017-18, while the number of under-5s
fell by 15 per cent.
Anne Longfield, the Children’s
Commissioner for England, is todaywarning that councils and the Govern-
ment “have yet to catch up with
this new normal” of a rising number
of teenagers “pinballing around the
system”.
She warned that services are
struggling to cope with increasing
numbers of teenagers because they are
experiencing issues such as criminal or
sexual exploitation, going missing from
home or parents being unable to
protect them.
There were 16,620 children aged 0-in care in 2012 however this dropped to
14,090 children in 2019. In contrast
there were 37,730 children aged 10 and
above in care in 2012 – a figure which
rose to 47,040 in 2018.
The Stability Index was launched in
2017 and is an annual measure of the
stability of the lives of children in Eng-
land and Wales.
It also found that the number of
over-16s entering care grew by 25 per
cent between 2013/14 and 2017/18 –
much higher than for any other agegroup. As a result, 23 per cent of chil-
dren in care are now over 16.
The Children’s Commissioner said
teenagers are more likely than younger
age groups to have the following issues
flagged up by social workers: child sex-
ual exploitation (6 times more likely),
going missing from home (7 times more
likely), gangs (5 times more likely), traf-
ficking (12 times more likely) and child
drug misuse (4 times more likely).
Ms Longfield said: “There are an in-
creasing number of teenage children inthe care system and too many of them
are ‘pinballing’ around the system,
changing home and family, school and
social worker.
“It is clear that we have a care system
which is playing catch up. The new
norm is shifting so that fewer babies
and very young children are being
taken off parents who cannot cope.
“The result is a care system that is
struggling to cope and which in turn is
not providing the stability that many
highly vulnerable children need.”Actor Sheen
‘broke’ after
charity gift
u Michael Sheen, the actor,
has said he will have to take
on more roles after giving
“everything” to charity.
Sheen, 50, revealed he
used his own savings to
ensure this year’s Homeless
World Cup in Wales went
ahead when funding fell
short. The Frost/Nixon star
said he had “earned good
money”, and “I figured if I’m
not prepared to give it all
away ... what am I doing? I’m
just a hypocrite”.
Sheen, from Newport,
Wales, admitted he had
been scaling back his
workload but said: “I’m
going to have work a bit
more, because this has cost
me more than I expected.”
The £2 million charity
football tournament for
homeless players from 51
nations takes place in Bute
Park, Cardiff, until Saturday.Warning over lethal drug
after six deaths in three days
Betting firm fined £6m over problem gambling and crime
u Public Health England
has issued a warning over a
spate of drug deaths amid
concerns that fentanyl could
be to blame.
Six people died in 50
hours in what police suspect
to be drug-related deaths.
A woman in her 30s was
found dead in Southend on
Sunday morning, while two
women and three men died
on Monday and Tuesday.
Public Health England
warned drug users to take
only small amounts of any
Class A drugs and not to
take them alone.Drug addiction charities
have expressed concern at
the possibility that fentanyl
could have played a role.
“There is a strong chance
it could be a bad batch of
heroin. There is also a slight
concern that fentanyl could
be playing a part,” an
anonymous source told The
Daily Telegraph.
In 2017, at least 60 people
died in the UK after taking
fentanyl – a painkiller
10,000 times stronger than
morphine. US music legend
Prince died after taking an
overdose of the drug.u One of Britain’s biggest
betting firms allowed a
gambler to lose £98,
over 30 months even though
their bank had blocked cash
transfers 460 times as there
was no money in their
account.
Another Ladbrokes Coral
customer was allowed to
spend £1.5m over threeyears without being asked to
provide any evidence of
their source of funds. The
Gambling Commission made
the revelations as it imposed
a £5.9 million penalty on
Ladbrokes Coral for failing
to put in place effective
safeguards to prevent
consumers suffering
gambling harm and to stopmoney laundering.
The first customer had
displayed signs of problem
gambling, logging into their
account on average 10 times
a day for a month, losing
£64,000 in one month
alone.
Ladbrokes Coral also
failed to check on a customer
who deposited over£140,000 in the first four
months of their account
being open.
The penalty package is
the fourth largest on record
and brings to £8m the
penalties imposed on
gambling companies in
the past three months.
Since 2016, £40 million in
fines has been levied.DeepMind AI could save thousands of NHS kidney patients’ lives
100,
The number of people in Britain who
die from Acute Kidney Injury each year,
often through dehydration in hospitalMeghan spurs
on first female
Muslim jockey
By Izzy Lyons
BRITAIN’S first female Muslim jockey
has said she would love the Duchess of
Sussex to watch her race as she consid-
ers her to be a “groundbreaking
woman”.
Khadijah Mellah is taking part in the
Magnolia Cup at Goodwood today
where she will compete in a female-
only charity race in her trademark
Nike-branded hijab.
The 18-year-old, from Peckham in
south-east London, only began riding
racehorses in April, but says she is con-
fident that she can succeed on the track
and is driven by the example set by the
Duchess of Sussex.
“She has managed to make history in
the Royal family,” Khadijah said.
“But I actively see people hating that
the Royal family has a woman of col-
our. This should be something that we
encourage – it should not be a negative
thing. To hear that she is struggling be-
cause people are hating her drives me
more, and makes me feel like I need to
prove a point. The way she handles all
of the criticism is so elegant. I would
love her to watch me race.”
Khadijah is expected to get her ama-
teur racing licence while she studies
mechanical engineering at university
in September.
Khadijah Mellah in
south London
before heading to
Glorious Goodwood
to compete in a
charity race todayGREAT BRITISH RACING/RIDING A DREAMRoll up the sleeves The Duchess of Sussex’s new clothing range
at M&S will benefit Smart Works, a charity helping get vulnerable
women jobs, by donating an item to them for every one bought.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS