Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust hasbecome the first in the health service to use augmented reality as a standardpart of gynaecological care, deploying the technology to help patientsunderstand conditions such as endometriosis and uterine fibroids. The moveaddresses a longstanding difficulty in women's health: these conditions arecomplex to diagnose, harder still to explain, and misunderstanding of theirseverity can delay treatment or affect the decisions patients make about theircare.

The technology works by generating large-scale, anatomicallyprecise 3D models that clinicians control from a computer. They can enlargespecific regions of the model to show where disease has spread, how deeplytissue is affected, and which areas will be removed during surgical excision.For a condition like deep infiltrating endometriosis, where lesions can embedin organs surrounding the uterus, this level of detail is difficult to conveythrough verbal description or standard imaging alone. Patients can see, beforetheir operation, exactly what the procedure will involve.

Tom Bainton, a consultant gynaecologist at the trust, saidthe technology was changing how clinicians support patient understanding ofcomplex conditions. That shift, from verbal explanation to direct visualdemonstration, matters in a specialty where patients often arrive having spentyears without a diagnosis and with limited understanding of what the conditionmeans for their bodies.

The technology was first introduced in a pilot in 2025,funded through CW+, the trust's charity, and the Friends of Chelsea andWestminster Hospital. Following that trial, it has since moved into standardclinical practice. The decision to embed it in routine care, rather than retainit as an experimental tool, reflects confidence in its practical utility. It isnow used in consultations to explain diagnoses and in pre-surgical planning.

The development at Chelsea and Westminster sits within awider period of change across NHS trusts, as health organisations work out howto incorporate AI and advanced digital tools into clinical and operationalpractice. That process is uneven. A recent discussion involving senior figuresfrom Bath, Salisbury and Great Western Hospitals Group and Royal Berkshire NHSFoundation Trust highlighted the pressures trusts face: fragmented cloudinfrastructure, legacy systems that resist integration, and the growingexpectation that digital services will function at a level patients now expectfrom other sectors.

Alongside these operational questions, clinical research isbeginning to surface complications in how AI tools interact with patients. Astudy published in JAMA Network Open, conducted across ambulatory practices ata large urban academic health centre between March and December 2024, foundthat patients were more likely to self-censor when AI ambient recording toolswere active during consultations, particularly on topics related to mentalhealth, sexual health, or illicit activity. The study involved 18 cliniciansand 103 patients and raised questions about the conditions under which informedconsent for such tools is genuinely meaningful.

At a global level, the World Health Organisation issuedrecommendations in March 2026 on the use of AI in mental health settings,developed with input from more than 30 international experts across AI,clinical practice, ethics, and public policy. One concern raised was thegrowing use of generative AI tools by young people for mental health support,tools that were neither designed nor tested for that purpose.

Taken together, these developments point to anNHS navigating significant technological change without a uniform set ofanswers. The augmented reality programme at Chelsea and Westminster is aspecific, clinically focused application with a clear purpose: improvingcommunication between clinician and patient at a moment when that communicationis consequential. Whether it influences how other trusts approach similarproblems in women's health remains to be seen, but it represents a practicalexample of a technology moving from trial into routine use within the healthservice.