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 

???? NHS England’s digitising social care programme has worked with people from across the sector to develop a single set of standard data and definitions to help care providers capture information in the same format, and label it the same way, across all care systems in England. The new draft Adult Social Care Record Standard: Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS) provides a single set of data definitions for care providers to ensure they capture information in the same format and label it in the same way across all assured Digital Social Care Record solution suppliers. The standard will support Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered adult social care providers to use one shared language in digital social care records. More information about the standard will be provided at a webinar on Navigating Digital Assurance on March 19th.  

???? Bupa, the UK private healthcare company, is transforming the way it approaches accessibility across its digital platforms that serve around 45 million customers. Partnering with Nexer Digital, Bupa has committed to delivering inclusive digital services and meeting the requirements of the European Accessibility Act, set to take effect in 2025. Bupa initially engaged Nexer to conduct an accessibility audit, focusing on the search function of its website.  This led to the development and implementation of multi-disciplinary accessibility training programmes for Bupa’s staff, ranging from online workshops to in-person sessions and targeted role-based training. The training culminated in a pop-up accessibility lab with executive team participation, embedding accessibility knowledge and raising awareness across the entire organisation.  

⚕ Coventry University is set to help the NHS tackle health inequalities in the city centre by becoming the UK’s first higher education institution co-located in an NHS Community Diagnostic Centre .  The university plans to deliver teaching, learning, clinical placements, and research, enterprise and innovation at the new health centre alongside University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust.  Once established, the centre will give the two organisations the opportunity to increase their capacity to educate the workforce of the future, giving students and researchers the ability to make a real-world impact on patients and practice.  The centre, which is expected to see about 90,000 patients annually and provide up to 75,000 additional patient tests a year by 2026, will target heart and lung problems and focus on expanding the city’s capacity for diagnosing cancers, due to high rates of premature mortality from those health issues in the Coventry area.   

⬛ By now, health systems seeking to capitalise on the enormous potential of artificial intelligence are well aware of the inherent risks, even dangers, of algorithms and models that are suboptimally designed or trained on the wrong data. But understanding the hazards of algorithmic bias or murky modelling techniques isn’t the same as knowing how to protect against them. How can healthcare providers know how to spot biased black box systems? How should they mitigate the risks of training algorithms on the wrong datasets? How can they build an ethical and equitable AI culture that prioritizes transparency and trustworthiness? At the HIMSS24 AI in Healthcare Forum on March 11, an afternoon panel discussion will tackle those questions and more. 

????xMEMS Labs has announced an innovative reference design for the fast-growing sleep buds product segment. The reference design utilises the company’s patented Skyline DynamicVent technology to deliver improved comfort and automatic ambient control using a physical vent and DSP noise detection. 

❓ Did you know that 

Research conducted by Savage Cabbage has revealed almost half of NHS talking therapy patients don’t complete the full treatment. 

44% of patients don’t complete NHS Talking Therapies treatment.  

62% of under 18s over don’t complete treatment.  

62% of people 90 and over don’t complete treatment.  

Females are more likely to complete treatment than males.  

Jade Proudman, from Savage Cabbage, shares her inspirational story and advice. 

???? What we’re reading 

A new WHO/Europe report shows that digital health technologies can improve women’s health and promote equity. The benefits are primarily associated with improving access to health-care services, enhancing maternal health, providing essential health information, and empowering women to have more autonomy. 

???? Upcoming events 

12-13 March, Birmingham NEC – Digital Health Rewired 2024