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

✍ AstraZeneca, the UK’s leading life science company, has officially become a signatory to a ground-breaking charter aimed at fostering healthcare innovation in Wales. This strategic partnership includes key players such as the Welsh Government, Swansea University, and Life Sciences Hub Wales. In joining forces, these organisations commit to a shared vision of developing novel approaches to diagnosing and treating illnesses. More importantly, their collaborative efforts are centred around achieving outcomes that matter most to patients and service users. 

????‍⚕️ Brainomix, the AI-powered medtech solutions company, has heralded its continued US expansion with the launch of its full suite of FDA-cleared modules in its Brainomix 360 platform for stroke care. The US launch, which included its previously announced FDA cleared e-ASPECTS module, represents a comprehensive platform designed to support clinicians and their imaging-based treatment decisions at all points across the stroke pathway, from simple imaging to more advanced imaging. 

???? Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc, the ‘classroom to clinic’ ultrasound company specialising in AI software and simulation, has announced a new AI development programme for gestational age estimation in prenatal care. ScanNav FetalCheck scanning technology aims to enable a non-skilled or skilled user to establish the gestational age (GA) accurately with minimal training.  

???? Blackford a strategic radiology AI platform and solutions provider, today announced a partnership with AI medical imaging company Oxipit. The agreement will bring innovative Oxipit’s chest x-ray products to Blackford’s enterprise AI platform. Blackford provides healthcare professionals access to an extensive portfolio of 100+ radiology and operational AI applications designed to drive clinical efficiency and improve patient outcomes. This partnership will integrate Oxipit’s chest x-ray application Quality with the Blackford Platform, providing radiologists a proactive ‘always on AI assistant’ to act as a second reader and to flag potential missed findings. 

???? Gathering health data remotely is a pain. Forgetting to slip on a wearable is easy, and hooking yourself up to a large monitor is intrusive. Celero Systems has another idea: What if your remote patient monitor was small enough to swallow? A team of researchers has tested Celero’s device in humans for the first time, successfully capturing heart and respiratory data in 10 patients with sleep apnea. The findings are a step toward one of Celero’s goals, which is to simplify sleep condition diagnosis. But the company’s guiding mission is to combat the opioid crisis by detecting respiratory distress in overdosing patients and releasing drugs to counteract the overdose — reducing the need for a third-party to administer naloxone, STAT reports. 

❓ Did you know that? 

A new report from the Health Foundation finds that government and the NHS must do more to improve public trust in how the health service handles data, as it faces public scrutiny following the award of the £330m contract for the Federated Data Platform. The public largely trust NHS organisations with their data, with 69% saying that they trust GP practices, 68% local NHS hospitals and clinics, and 64% national NHS organisations. By comparison, 42% trust companies who provide the NHS with software to collect, store and use health data, and only a third trust local and national government with their health data. Over half (57%) of people aged 16-24 trust national NHS organisations with their data – but this is a significantly smaller proportion than for older people (74%). 

???? What we’re reading 

U.S. digital health startups raised $6.1 billion in the first half of 2023, according to Rock Health, which sounds impressive until you compare it to the $10.4 billion and $15.1 billion raised in the first six months of 2021 and 2022, respectively. Several well-known companies have consolidated, and we’ve also seen the closure of a number of creative digital health startups. Many experts believe the current financial environment may be necessary for digital health’s ability to grow sustainably and deliver on its promise to fill gaps in our health system. With digital health experiencing a Darwinian reckoning, which companies will be around for the long haul, which are facing extinction, and why, Forbes asks? 

???? Upcoming events 

29 November 14:00-15:00 – Webinar: The next evolution of AI: Fully automated clinical documentation

30 November – Networks Exchange November: ICS Digital Priorities Unveiled – Shaping the Future of NHS