Client story Empathy at scale: Humanising breast screening results with AI

When clarity is part of care 

Patients receiving highly technical screening results can experience unnecessary anxiety, particularly when findings are abnormal or unfamiliar. Clinicians often spend time translating clinical outputs into everyday language during follow-up conversations. When written explanations are provided, they can be inconsistent in clarity, tone, and empathy, especially in high-stress situations such as a first-time abnormal finding. 

Bringing consistency and empathy to sensitive communications

The challenge was not diagnostic accuracy, as Volpara’s clinical analytics are already advanced, it was about communication at scale: translating complex, patient-specific clinical data into explanations that are medically responsible, emotionally appropriate, and tailored to each individual’s situation without increasing clinician workload or introducing variability in quality.  

Insight designed and delivered an AI-powered reporting capability on Microsoft Azure that automatically generates personalised, plain-language breast screening summaries for patients. Rather than relying on static templates, the solution is designed to dynamically construct each summary based on structured inputs and adjust language complexity, tone, reassurance level, and educational content to suit the patient’s context.  

In leading this work, Insight applied its experience delivering responsible AI in sensitive healthcare contexts, ensuring capability balanced technical rigour with the trust, clarity, and reassurance for patient communication at scale.  

This contextual approach is intended to support more nuanced communication at scale. Routine screenings with normal results can be expressed clearly and succinctly without unnecessary detail. Summaries are designed to use carefully calibrated language that acknowledges uncertainty where appropriate, avoid alarmist phrasing, prioritise clarity on what the result means, what happens next, and when to seek help. The experience can also be supported by tailored education, so patients understand key terms and the purpose of any follow-up.

Building a foundation for future innovation

To meet the control and customisation required for patient-specific communication, Insight used Azure OpenAI services within an enterprise-grade Azure platform. The architecture was designed for security, scalability, and reuse, providing Volpara with a repeatable pattern that can be extended across additional imaging and diagnostic scenarios over time.

Alongside delivery, Insight ran hands-on workshops to accelerate Volpara’s internal understanding of generative AI design, governance, and operational considerations. This allowed Volpara teams to maintain and extend the capability independently.

Results & Impact

By generating personalised, plain-language screening summaries designed to adapt tone, content, and supporting education to each patient’s context, Volpara aims to improve the consistency, clarity, and empathy of patient communications. The intended value is twofold: helping patients feel informed about what their outcome means and what happens next, while reducing the time clinicians spend re-explaining technical outputs and rewriting correspondence. By standardising the quality of explanations (without standardising the patient experience), clinical teams can focus more of their time on care and follow-up.

Beyond the immediate use case, the architecture has been designed to be reusable and extensible. Volpara expects this will enable broader value over time by expanding the same approach into additional imaging and diagnostic scenarios, and by supporting future experiences such as patient-accessible delivery of screening summaries and provider-ready communication interfaces that can scale across radiology networks.

With a production-ready platform in place, Volpara is positioned to build on this foundation to extend clearer, more human-centred patient communication across future breast health experiences.