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 

???? Digital care planning software provider, KareInn, has launched a new reporting suite, including customisable dashboards, interactive widgets and configurable reports, to further support care homes in making better clinical and business decisions about what residents need. The new features available within the KareInn platform will provide deeper insight and will make digital care planning even more accessible to senior leaders, enabling high-level decision making at the touch of a button. 

????‍⚕️ Consultant surgeons have reached a significant milestone in the development of robotic surgery at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. NNUH was the first hospital in East Anglia to perform robotic colorectal cancer surgery, in 2017 after robots were introduced into the Trust in 2016. Since then, surgeons have carried out more than 3,000 robotic assisted procedures in urology, gynaecology, thoracic, ENT and colorectal surgery. 

???? Proximie, the leading global health technology platform digitising operating rooms (OR), has announced the launch of its first Software Development Kit (SDK) – a blueprint for the first operating system within an OR – at Slush, the world’s leading start-up event. The benefits of the milestone are significant for many stakeholders – patients, surgeons, and medical device and robotics developers. Through use of Proximie’s SDK valuable surgical data can be captured into how devices perform while being used in real-world surgeries. This will speed up the innovation and global development of medical technology systems in the OR – thus improving patient safety and making surgery even more productive. 

???? The government has announced that 54 areas are receiving a share of a £40m fund to help with urgent and emergency care this winter, with the North West getting nearly four times as much as the North East, Yorkshire and Humber region. Councils have been asked to use the money to increase the amount of specialist dementia support available, increase patient transport, and invest in technology to monitor people at home. 

???? Ideagen, provider of software solutions for regulated industries, has announced that it is acquiring Australian-based all-in-one compliance management platform Op Central. Op Central’s AI-supported solution is said to be capable of creating standard operating procedures and processes, along with supporting learning materials and distributing them to multiple locations. On the solution, the company noted, in order to meet the different regulatory requirements of particular geographies, content can be tailored, and central changes automatically update across all documents and learning materials with the aim of reducing the risk of out-of-date procedures being followed. 

❓ Did you know that? 

According to new research released by Opengear, 94% of UK-based CIOs surveyed expressed serious concerns about at least one cybersecurity threat: malware (36%), spam and phishing (36%), ransomware (36%), and insider threats (27%). 

???? What we’re reading 

Generative AI could revolutionise health care – but not if control is ceded to big tech – written by Augustin Toma, Senthujan Senkaiahliyan, Patrick R. Lawler, Barry Rubin and Bo Wang. Source: nature.

???? This week’s events 

6 December 8:30-9:45am, The King’s Fund, London – Future proofing the NHS workforce: making health care a more attractive career 

6 December 12:30-13:30 – Digital Health Webinar: How to maximise your Electronic Patient Record investment to effectively advance healthcare 

8 December 12:30-13:30 – Digital Health Webinar: Accelerating Healthcare Insights – Rapidly unlocking value from your data