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

💬  The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) has opened a mobile endoscopy unit in an effort to reduce wait times for diagnostic tests. The unit, which opened on 19 August, will operate a seven-day service with the aim of clearing waiting lists for planned and surveillance procedures. It will be on-site for six months and features two diagnostic rooms and its own decontamination facilities.

🤖 Robotic rehabilitation coaches have been trialled in Vienna as part of an international study exploring how robots can assist stroke patients’ rehabilitation. Led by the UK’s National Robotarium, the trial involved connecting patients to a robot via a headset that monitored their brain activity. The robot then processed signal from the headset to understand the patient’s intended movements during exercises, mirroring their movements and giving them real-time feedback. The aim of the research is to make prescribed self-managed rehabilitation routines more engaging to increase adherence.

🚀 Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has appointed its first nurse dedicated to driving digital transformation. Carrie Calvin will provide clinical input to IT colleagues, support the roll-out of new technologies and help clinicians get to grips with digital systems as part of the brand-new role. Amongst her first tasks is helping with the planning and deployment of a new electronic patient handover system called Connect.

📱 Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust has announced a new series of digital skills workshops to help local people get to grips with mobile technology. Run by Midlands Partnership University’s digital training team in partnership with Digital Poverty Alliance, the free workshop aims to help older members of the community build their confidence in tech by teaching them fundamental skills. This includes how to make a call or send a text, how to navigate the web securely and how to download the NHS App.

🍼 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has gone live with an electronic patient record (EPR) system within its maternity unit at Lister Hospital called My Pregnancy Notes. The web-based system creates a maternity EPR for patients who present at the Lister Diamond Jubilee maternity unit and covers pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. The EPR supports end-to-end conversations, allowing parents to connect with care teams and access information in real-time.

❓Did you know?

A report, ‘Feeling the pressure: what the 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey reveals about the state of the UK health system’, published by The Health Foundation on 2 August 2024, says that UK’s performance on hospital-based care is one of the worst in a public survey of the top 10 high-income countries.

The analysis of the 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey found that the UK had among the longest waiting times compared to the other countries, with 11% of people waiting a year or more for a specialist appointment and 19% waiting a year or more for non-emergency surgery.

Poor access to out-of-hours care and the cost of treatments like dental care also puts the UK near the bottom.

Ruth Thorlby, assistant director of policy at The Health Foundation, said: “These findings show the UK consistently coming near the bottom of the pack on people’s experience of healthcare compared to other high-income countries.

“It sheds yet more light on just how much work the government has to do to get the NHS back on its feet”.

📖 What we’re reading

A blog for the Nuffield Trust, authored by Dr Jess Morley, postdoctoral researcher at Yale University’s Digital Ethics Centre, has urged caution about viewing AI as a solution to the NHS’s challenges.

In ‘AI and the NHS: is it the silver bullet that will improve the health service’s productivity?‘ Dr Morley says realistic expectations and careful planning are needed to ensure that AI is used effectively in NHS care.

She highlights three key considerations: the NHS’s outdated and fragmented data infrastructure, the unclear regulatory pathways for AI in clinical care, and ethical concerns like bias and patient autonomy. 

Dr Morley argues that, while AI holds promise, it should not be seen as a “silver bullet” and requires a comprehensive, systemic approach to be beneficial.

🚨 Upcoming events

3 September, webinar — Thinking Differently: Narrowing health inequalities