Digital Health Coffee Time Briefing ☕

Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”.

👇 News

🤰 West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is offering free data and SIM cards to pregnant women who are digitally excluded from accessing their online maternity records. The initiative is part of a partnership with digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation.

🩸 South West London Pathology (SWLP) has introduced Beckman Coulter analysers to the laboratories at Croydon Hospital. The installation is the first step of the rollout of new blood sciences services at all SWLP sites across the network, covering clinical chemistry, haematology, coagulation, serology, and pre-analytical automation.

📝 Compliance and risk management solution provider Veriforce CHAS has announced a partnership with UK health-tech platform HealthKey. The collaboration aims to help CHAS-assessed contractors to offer healthcare benefits to their employees at a discounted rate, addressing critical health and wellbeing gaps in the UK construction and related industries.

🧡 Healthtech startup, PocDoc, has appointed corporate communications agency THREESIXTY, to develop and execute the company’s corporate communications strategy on a retained basis. PocDoc announced an oversubscribed funding round in December 2024, taking its total pre-A funding to more than £10m.

👴 Digital healthcare platform ilarna has partnered with the Clive Henry Group to expand its capacity for technology-enabled community services, releasing the burden on NHS trusts by improving patient flow and reducing avoidable admissions. ilarna uses digital technology to match care professionals with individuals who need access to services such as dementia care, palliative care, and personal care.

❓Did you know?

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire healthcare providers are using technology enabled care (TEC) to help shorten hospital stays and reduce readmissions.

TEC refers to assistive technology and telecare that helps people to live in their homes safely and supports their independence.

This can include pendants and pagers to alert others if someone needs help, special plugs to prevent baths overflowing or being too hot, gadgets that act as a reminder to take medication and voice-controlled speakers that let someone control their environment and speak to friends and family.

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, Sirona care & health, North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, and local authority providers have worked together to establish a consistent approach to TEC referrals.

When a patient is successfully referred for TEC, it is installed in the place they call home within 48 hours.

📖 What we’re reading

In an explainer for The Guardian, published on 13 January 2025, Dan Milmo and Kiran Stacey ask ‘What does the AI plan mean for NHS patient data and is there cause for concern?’.

The article explores the plans to create a National Data Library, announced by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer as part of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Although the plan, written by the government’s AI advisor Matt Clifford, does not mention the use of health data, Starmer said in his speech this week that there was a “huge opportunity” to improve healthcare.

The article examines concerns about the use of health data in AI, whether the data could be used for commercial purposes and legal implications.

🚨 Upcoming events

30 January, virtual event – NHS Digital Transformation 2025