Consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Dr Paul Bentley, says using the software will make it possible for NHS doctors to treat 50 per cent more stroke victims compared to using standard CT scans.

The algorithm was a combined effort of staff at Imperial College London, Technical University of Munich and Edinburgh University, and was tested on 800 brain scans and 2,000 patients, and the aim is to have it used in the NHS to aid doctors with “emergency decisions”.

Bentley revealed in the peer-reviewed medical journal NPJ Digital Medicine: “It’s essential for doctors to know both the initial onset time, as well as whether a stroke could be reversed.

“Having this information at their fingertips will help doctors to make emergency decisions about what treatments should be undertaken in stroke patients.

“Not only is our software twice as accurate at time reading as current best practice, but it can be fully automated once a stroke becomes visible on a scan.”

Lead author Dr Adam Marcus added: “We estimate that up to 50 per cent more stroke patients could be treated appropriately with treatments because of our method.

“We aim to deploy our software in the NHS, possibly by integrating with existing AI-analytic software that is already in use in hospital trusts.”