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  

????‍????‍???? Paediatricians and other child health professionals based in England can now start transitioning towards using the new inpatient Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS) chart which has been released by NHS England for use today and creates a common language and standardised warning system for spotting deterioration in children in health settings. This is part of the System-wide Paediatric Observations Tracking (SPOT) programme, led by NHS England in collaboration and endorsement from the RCPCH and the Royal College of Nursing. The ultimate aim of the PEWS is to support better health outcomes and ensure deterioration and acute illnesses in Children and Young People (CYP) is escalated and responded upon effectively and quickly.  

???? Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has been announced as highly commended for the Innovative Award for Quality Improvement at the RLDatix Awards 2023. The trust’s project ‘Driving Down Waiting Lists with an Innovative Staff Rostering System’ was implemented as an initiative to address staffing pressures and support elective surgery waiting lists. The new system resulted in theatre list cancellations due to staffing issues being completely eliminated since December 2022, contributing to the trust’s achievement of the 104-week elective recovery target. 

????‍⚕️ Abbots Care, a care provider with an outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has taken a pioneering step in addressing the pressing issue of staff retention in the care sector by introducing their innovative wellbeing app. This groundbreaking initiative aims to enhance the mental and emotional wellbeing of their dedicated workforce and has yielded remarkable results since its launch in 2021. Statistics from the CQC Adult Social Care Workforce Survey in January 2023 revealed that 28% of homecare providers cited staff burnout as a significant factor contributing to staff departures. The survey highlighted the critical need for solutions to address the wellbeing and job satisfaction of care workers. 

???? A start-up is developing technology to build a pharmaceuticals factory in space that could help improve the lives of patients undergoing antibody treatments for cancer and other diseases. Currently, for patients undergoing antibody cancer treatments, this involves spending hours at a time in hospital to undergo intravenous infusions, which are both time consuming and invasive. To address this issue, start-up company BioOrbit is aiming to transform how this treatment is administered as it investigates the potential to manufacture antibody cancer therapy drugs in space. These drugs would be administered from the home just as with insulin, which is itself composed of small crystals. 

???? Veeva Systems has published its latest analysis from the Veeva Pulse Field Trends Report, showing the impact of two-way, digital communication channels on field engagement. Findings reveal that access to compliant chat expands the engagement channel mix, more than doubling digital touchpoints with healthcare professionals (HCPs) while maintaining or increasing in-person meetings. 

❓ Did you know that? 

A health breach in Chicago, reported by the HIPAA Journal, is four times larger than the average health data breach. Cook County Health in Chicago, Illinois confirmed that the protected health information of up to 1.2 million patients has potentially been obtained by hackers. The breach is a result of an unauthorised individual gaining access through a cyberattack on one of its business associates, Perry Johnson & Associates. 

Cook County Health operates John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital and Provident Hospital in Chicago, as well as four pharmacies, two health services, and 15 community health centers in Cook County, the most populous county in Illinois. 

???? What we’re reading 

Artificial intelligence is touted as saving time and improving accuracy of diagnosis, among other benefits in medicine. How are such claims being evaluated? Chris Stokel-Walker reports in the BMJ.  

???? This week’s events 

16 November – “Next steps for Adult social care in England”, Westminster Health Forum policy conference (online)