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 Groves Medical Centre in New Malden has reported a 73% reduction in GP waiting times following the adoption of Rapid Health’s AI-powered Smart Triage system, reports Med-Tech News. The system prioritises patients based on the urgency of their condition, rather than the traditional first-come, first-served approach. The GP practice says it has seen faster appointments for those in need of immediate care, resulting in a 47% decrease in peak hour phone calls and a 60% rise in face-to-face consultations.

🙋‍♂️DadPad, a digital resource designed to support new fathers, has been recognised for innovation within the healthcare sector at The Commonwealth at 75. DadPad was featured in a commemorative book marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the modern commonwealth. The Dadpad app covers topics like holding, changing and bathing babies, as well as coping with crying and sleep deprivation. To date, the resource has been commissioned by more than 20 NHS trusts.

🤝 Health secretary Wes Streeting has announced the establishment of the Liverpool Institute of Child Health and Wellbeing, a collaboration between Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the University of Liverpool. The partnership will focus on tackling health challenges affecting children in the region, including mental health and obesity and health. It forms part of a wider effort to address the widening health disparities that disproportionately affect disadvantaged children.

⚡Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University have partnered with Roche Diagnostics to boost diagnostic capabilities in the region. The partnership forms part of Newcastle’s Health Innovation Neighbourhood initiative, and will focus on developing more accurate and personalised diagnostic tests for complex conditions like cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

💡Assisted living provider Birchgrove has installed Nobi’s AI-powered fall detection lights in all 356 of its retirement apartments. The “smart lights” are equipped with sensors that automatically alert caregivers when a resident suffers a fall, enabling them to respond more quickly. The technology is intended to address fall-related incidents – one of the leading causes of injury in older individuals – and help Birchgrove’s residents live safely and independently for longer.

❓Did you know?

There were 1.08 billion prescription items dispensed via the electronic prescription service (EPS) in England in 2023/2024, according to the report ‘General Pharmaceutical Services – England 2015/16 to 2023/24‘, published by NHS Business Services on 10 October 2024.

This was 96% of all items dispensed – a small percentage increase from the 2022/2023 figures.

Overall, 99.7% of contractors dispensed at least one item via EPS.

📖 What we’re reading

The King’s Fund report, ‘Public health and population health: Leading together’, published on 8 October 2024, explores the relationship between public health and population health leadership within integrated care systems (ICSs).

The report discusses the challenges emerging as public health and population health leaders face shifting roles and responsibilities. A key issue is the ongoing debate about whether public health and population health are distinct or overlapping concepts, leading to tensions between leaderships.

Authors David Buck, Luca Tiratelli and Cheryl Gowar call for greater clarity in role definitions and sustained investment in public health and population health capacity to ensure progress on reducing health inequalities.

“There is a real and urgent need for national-level leaders to provide clarity here. We heard different views on what ‘the answer’ was to this problem: from a top-down conceptual definition with a clear framework of responsibilities, to a more facilitative approach, setting out examples and possible roles in a broad framework,” the report says.

🚨Upcoming events

23 October, Coventry – AI Transform