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

🚀 Amazon Web Services will provide £8 million worth of cloud computing storage to biomedical database UK Biobank. According to a government press release, the funding will support UK Biobank’s research into developing new diagnostics and treatments for diseases including Parkinson’s, dementia and cancer. It will be match-funded with a further £8 million from the UK government.

🔬 Evelina London Children’s Hospital at Guy’s and St Thomas’ has launched the UK’s first paediatric bladder neuromodulation service, which offers specialised procedures for children with rare bladder conditions. The treatment, known as sacral nerve stimulation, involves implanting a device similar to a pacemaker on the lower back that uses electrical impulses to regulate bladder function.

📱 The Cwm Taf Morgannwg (CTM) University Health Board in Wales is launching a new digital health assessment platform aimed at improving patient outcomes and quality of care. The platform, planned to launch in summer 2024, will collect patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and will initially focus on heart failure and lymphoedema services, CTM said in a statement.

🌡️ EU researchers have announced an open-access platform to predict temperature-related deaths by age and sex across Europe. Called forecaster.health, the platform provides warnings of mortality risks based on ambient temperatures, with the aim of helping to inform and protect vulnerable populations.

💡 Health Data Research UK and Dementias Platform UK have announced an initiative to accelerate research into motor neurone disease (MND). The MND Research Data Catalyst will use the UK’s health data infrastructure to speed up the discovery of new diagnostics and treatments for MND patients, working alongside the UK Dementia Research Institute.

❓ Did you know?

The cost of England’s four biggest killer diseases could hit £86bn by 2050, according to research published in the Lancet Longevity Healthy journal.

The combined annual cost of cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke is projected to rise from £51.9bn in 2018 to £85.6bn in 2050, an increase of 61%. 

📖 What we’re reading

The NHS Confederation has released a progress report on the state of integrated care systems in England, following Patricia Hewitt’s critical review in April 2023, which set out proposals for improving data sharing, digital leadership, making best use of the NHS App and data integration.

‘The Hewitt Review: Where are we one year on?’, published on 26 July 2024, found that “little tangible progress” has been made on realising the digital recommendations.

“The significant gaps in the capacity, capability and diversity within the professional digital leadership workforce presents the NHS with risks in fully meeting the evolving needs and demands of a modernised and fit for purpose NHS healthcare system,” the report says.

🚨 This week’s event

8-9 August 2024, London –World Congress on Healthcare and Technologies