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  

???? Most people in the UK at some point experience periodontal (gum) diseases in the form of gingivitis or, more seriously, periodontitis. In newly updated clinical guidance published today, NHS Education for Scotland’s (NES) Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) brings together the latest advice on periodontal disease classification and treatment within one digital resource. 

???? Smoking can change immune responses with long-lasting effects, according to a Nature study published Wednesday. The study found that adaptive immunity responses persisted long after individuals quit smoking and is associated with epigenetic memory. The results of the research, the article concluded, “have potential clinical implications for the risk of developing infections, cancers or autoimmune diseases”. 

???? Amazec Photonics, a Dutch photonics based medtech that creates cardiovascular monitoring tools, has secured a €1.5 million Seed Round to develop its pioneering minimally invasive diagnosis devices. The round was led by PhotonDelta – a cross-border growth accelerator and ecosystem of photonic chip technology organisations – with a number of private investors also contributing. The funding will be used to develop devices for clinical trials, with the aim of enabling much earlier and much more accurate diagnosis for minimal costs and complexity.  

???? The Academy of Medical Sciences has launched a new funding initiative, the Cross-Sector Experience Awards, to ensure talented people can develop careers that span public, private and charitable sectors, to drive forward health innovation and break down barriers to movement. The awards provide up to £100,000 for individuals to work in a different sector for three to twelve months to gain new skills, foster collaborations and accelerate work on human health and wellbeing. Delivered in partnership with Wellcome and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the awards aim to break down barriers by providing funding and facilitating placements across all sectors, including industry, academia and the NHS.   

????‍⚕️ The All India Institute of Medical Science in New Delhi has unveiled its new AI solution that assists with the early detection of cancer. Developed with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the AI system runs on deep learning models capable of analysing complex medical data with “unprecedented accuracy and efficiency”. It was trained using a data set of 500,000 radiological and histopathological images from 1,500 cases of breast and ovarian cancers, the two most common types of cancer. It has now been applied by the Department of Gynaecology to validate cases of breast and ovarian cancer. AIIMS has made the AI solution available to cancer hospitals and research centres for implementation, with deployment already made to five undisclosed district hospitals.  

❓ Did you know that?  

New figures released this month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the most common age for women to give birth was 31. For their mums, it was a whole decade earlier. Despite this rise in the most likely age for women to have a child, the average family size is now creeping up after recent record lows. A leading health expert says increased access to fertility testing means women can safely plan to have children later in life, once their careers have been established and they have a settled lifestyle. 

???? What we’re reading 

A recent study in Frontiers in Neurology found that the Brain Care Score, or BCS, may help in assessing one’s risk of developing dementia or having a stroke as they age. In this article from Healthcare IT News, Dr Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a professor in neurology at Harvard Medical School and chief medical officer and cofounder of Linus Health, discusses how this finding can be put into practical use.  

???? This week’s events 

15-16 February, London – International Conference on Digital Healthcare 2024