We’re excited to welcome Dr. Cian Hughes as Chief Scientific Officer at Counsel Health. Cian brings a unique blend of clinical experience and technical expertise, having worked across the NHS, DeepMind, and Google to advance the safe and effective use of AI in healthcare. At Counsel, he’s leading efforts to strengthen the company’s scientific foundation, ensure responsible deployment of clinical-grade AI, and push the boundaries of what’s possible when physicians and technology work in harmony.

1. Reflecting on your first month at Counsel, what has stood out to you most about the company’s approach to applying AI in healthcare?

Above all else, what has stood out to me since joining Counsel is the thoughtful, evidence-based way the company applies AI to clinical care. At its core, Counsel is committed not only to following best practices but also to generating and publishing new research from our work to deliver AI-powered, patient-centered care.

2. You’ve spent your career at the intersection of medicine and AI, from DeepMind to the NHS. How has that journey shaped the way you think about building AI that physicians and patients can truly trust?

From my own clinical practice, I know healthcare faces a growing capacity problem, driven by an aging population and physician burnout. That challenge will only intensify as medical technology advances and doctors are able to do more for patients.

I’ve always been passionate about patient safety and using technology to reduce avoidable harm. During my time in the NHS, I worked on the COVID vaccination program and saw firsthand how technology played a critical role in reopening society. Earlier in my career at DeepMind Health, I focused on safety-critical applications of AI in medicine — from the timely detection of kidney failure, blinding eye disease, and cancer, to improving radiotherapy planning, where precision is essential to avoid life-altering side effects. More recently, my work on projects such as Gemini, MedGemma, and AMIE has deepened my belief that safety-oriented design is fundamental to building AI systems patients can trust with their health.

3. AI in healthcare comes with enormous potential, but also serious responsibility. How do you think about building the right guardrails so AI can be applied safely and responsibly in patient care?

During my time at DeepMind Health, I completed NHS England’s Digital Clinical Safety training and worked on several regulated medical AI applications. AI presents both new challenges and new opportunities for clinical safety.

I believe careful, continuous measurement of system-wide safety and performance is essential for the responsible deployment of AI in healthcare. For AI-powered diagnostic systems, consensus reporting standards like STARD-AI are invaluable in helping the scientific community produce high-quality, reproducible evidence.

4. At Counsel, we often talk about combining “clinical-grade AI with physician-led care.” From a science and technology perspective, how do you see that synergy creating new possibilities for care delivery?

Even the best physicians in the world make mistakes, and I believe AI can play a crucial role in preventing them. AI systems have already been shown to surpass human performance at some medical tasks, such as identifying rare diagnoses.

In the near future, I expect physicians will routinely query a co-pilot agent rather than manually reviewing charts. Eventually, AI agents may make provisional diagnoses and collaborate with other agents to gather contextual information from multiple data sources, giving physicians the right insights at the right time to deliver excellent care.

5. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities for Counsel to amplify its AI capabilities and redefine what’s possible in patient care?

I see AI at Counsel becoming the orchestrator of high-quality care. Today, our systems already collect comprehensive medical histories before patients are connected with one of our physicians. In the future, I can envision our doctors referring stable patients back to AI agents for ongoing management of chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension.

Through this shared-care model, patients will receive timely, personalized information from AI systems while knowing their care remains physician-led. If successful, this approach could meaningfully expand physician capacity while improving patient outcomes.

If Cian’s vision resonates with you, and you want to join a driven team shaping the future of healthcare, explore our open roles.