About the fellowship

Background

Clinical leaders with expertise in Artificial Intelligence are essential to the integration and rollout of AI software in NHS trusts. To deliver the UK government’s plan of making the NHS the most AI-enabled workforce in the world by 2035, the NHS must provide dedicated training for clinicians in cutting-edge skills required for clinical AI deployment. This fellowship is the first systematic route in the UK to acquire the relevant skills in clinical AI deployment. Fellows gain expertise in clinical AI alongside their existing roles and implement state-of-the-art AI software in live hospital environments.

Fellows are matched with an expert AI supervisor and team to gain experience in real-world applications of clinical AI. Fellows gain skills and knowledge relevant to the full life cycle of healthcare AI from a bespoke programme of teaching aligned with the Clinical AI Curriculum developed by the faculty. As a lasting legacy of the fellowship, fellows become part of a uniquely networked community of interest within the healthcare AI community.

This unique programme is featured as an exemplar in upskilling clinicians for AI transformation in both the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023) and the NHS Transformation Directorate report, Developing Healthcare Workers’ Confidence in AI (2022). The fellowship builds directly from the recommendation of the Topol Review (2019) to create posts for clinicians with dedicated time to implement AI technologies.

The fellowship is delivered by the Clinical Scientific Computing team of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Fellowship Faculty

See the faculty here, and contact the faculty here.

Curriculum

The bespoke curriculum of the fellowship was designed by the faculty, and aligns to educational frameworks from Health Education England.

Read the curriculum

NHS Recruitment Regions and AI Project Host Trusts

The list below is indicative and may vary between cohorts.

Literature

• The NHS Transformation Directorate report Developing Healthcare Workers’ Confidence in AI (2022) describes the fellowship’s role in training digital and AI specialist clinicians
• The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023) referenced the fellowship as an exemplar programme in upskilling and training staff to maximise AI technologies
• Health Innovation Network South London formally evaluated the fellowship pilot in an independent published report (2023)
• Salisbury et al. described how our fellows ‘learn how to safely deploy, maintain, and evaluate AI software in real clinical workflows’ in an editorial in npj Digital Medicine (2023)
• Misra et al. described the fellowship’s role in creating ‘clinical champions’ in ‘AI-powered care’ in the Future Healthcare Journal (2024) of the Royal College of Physicians
• The fellowship and its fellows were profiled in the The Doctor magazine (2024) of the British Medical Association
• The fellowship was showcased as an opportunity to acquire ‘skills to implement and adopt AI safely and effectively’ in NHS OneLondon’s Framework for the safe, efficient and effective implementation, use and maintenance of AI in health and care in London (2025)
• Insights from the scaling-up of this programme from a local to national scope was published by our Programme Manger Beatrix Fletcher
• Health Education and Improvement Wales published Artificial Intelligence Education and Skills within NHS Wales Landscape review (2025), in which they endorsed the fellowship as a programme to meet the education and skills ambitions of the Welsh AI Commission for Health and Social Care

Acknowledgements

The educational materials of this fellowship have been co-developed with partners including:

• Digital Clinical Safety Informatics team, NHS Digital
• Software and AI team, Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
• AI and digital regulations service, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• Innovations Scholars Programme, King’s College London

The fellowship is funded through:

• NHS England Workforce, Training and Education (NHSE WTE)
• Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW)
• NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• British Society for Haematology

The fellowship gratefully acknowledges the support of:

• Dr Hatim Abdulhussein, National Clinical Lead for AI and Digital Workforce- NHS England
• James Freed, Deputy Director- NHS Digital Academy
• Dr Claire Mallinson, Director of Education- King’s Health Partners

Testimonials

“I’m so proud of what you’re doing. I look forward to following your career paths because you’re going to light it up. You’re going to be the change agents for medicine, and we sure need it.”
Professor Eric Topol (2022), Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Leader of The Topol Review

“The launch of the Fellowship in Clinical AI is an unprecedented step towards integrating experiential learning into postgraduate training pathways, and we hope to learn from and scale opportunities like this to help prepare the future clinical AI specialist workforce”
Dr Hatim Abdulhussein (2022), National Clinical Lead for AI and Digital Workforce, NHS England

“The NHS Fellowship in Clinical AI has been the most valuable professional development activity of my career to date.”
Dr Rishi Ramessur (2024), NHS Fellow in Clinical AI, Cohort 2