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  

???? UCB and Open Medical today announce a new Joint Working project to optimise the number of fracture patients identified to Fracture Liaison Services (FLS). The project aims to automate data collection for Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) using Open Medical’s cloud-based Pathpoint software and ultimately support the identification and assessment of people at risk of osteoporotic fracture. 

???? Siemens Healthineers has introduced the ACUSON Maple¹, a powerful, versatile and affordable ultrasound system that enables rapid diagnosis and assessment in all clinical settings. AI-powered features optimise everyday clinical performance for users of all skill levels. Powered by ACUSON technology from the established portfolio from Siemens Healthineers, the ACUSON Maple is designed for the clinician who needs a workhorse ultrasound system that supports a diverse range of ultrasound use cases. Lightweight, portable and battery-powered, the ACUSON Maple is ideal for emerging markets, small hospitals, outpatient centres, private practices and urgent care centres. 

???? Drones are being used to deliver defibrillators to patients in a successful Scandinavian trial, which showed they can get to patients faster than paramedics. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have evaluated the possibility of dispatching drones equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to patients with suspected cardiac arrest, and report that in more than half the cases, the drones were ahead of the ambulance by an average of three minutes.  

???? Hurdle, a pioneer in diagnostic testing, and the Consumer Health division of Bayer have launched a strategic partnership to advance consumer innovations in the emerging area of healthy aging. The partnership is designed to enhance the companies’ shared ambition to transform self-care through personalized solutions.  

????‍???? Neo4j, a graph database and analytics company, has signed a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables enterprises to achieve better generative artificial intelligence (AI) outcomes through a unique combination of knowledge graphs and native vector search that reduces generative AI hallucinations while making results more accurate, transparent, and explainable. This helps solve a common problem for developers who need long-term memory for large language models (LLMs) that are grounded in their specific enterprise data and domains. 

❓ Did you know that? 

In low- and middle-income countries, fewer than 3 in 10 children with cancer are cured, compared to 8 in 10 in high-income countries like the UK. Yet there are cost-effective medicines to address the most treatable forms of cancer, but accessing treatment can be a challenge and even a barrier between cure or death. This Christmas, International Health Partners (IHP), will be taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge, where donations made between 28th Nov-5th Dec, will be DOUBLED. 

???? What we’re reading 

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published a new document outlining essential regulatory considerations for applying artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.The publication underscores the critical need to ensure the safety and efficacy of AI systems, accelerating their availability to those in need and encouraging collaboration among various stakeholders, including developers, regulators, manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and patients. 

???? This week’s events 

29 November 14:00-15:00 – Digital Health Webinar: The Next Evolution of AI: Fully automated clinical documentation 

30 November 09:00-15:00 – Networks Exchange November: ICS Digital Priorities Unveiled – Shaping the Future of NHS