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

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust launched Badger Notes on 4 February 2025, allowing women across the region to access their maternity records and tailored pregnancy information. The digital app replaces traditional hand-held paper files and provides a week-by-week timeline of patients’ pregnancies, allows them to view appointments and maternity records and submit questions about antenatal care, birth plans and postnatal care to midwives and doctors. The maternity team has also partnered with Good Things Foundation to support digitally disadvantaged women, by gifting them mobile devices and free data.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has opened procurement for a digital dental management EPR system, with a value of £100,000. The contract is stated as being for five years, and the deadline is 20 March 2025. The trust would like the new system to handle referral management, diary and appointment management, send text reminders, clinical record keeping, SOMED coding, analyse activity data and deliver automated submission of completed treatment to NHS BSA.

NeoHealth Primary Care Network has joined forces with Aide Health to provide patients with long-term health conditions access to a self-management platform. The digital tool delivers 24/7 access to consultations and reviews through conversational AI, in a bid to improve patients’ capability to self-manage their conditions. Type 2 diabetics and patients with hypertension will be first to be offered the service.

Ignota Labs has raised $6.9 million in a seed funding round co-led by Montage Ventures and AIX Ventures, with participation from Modi Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, and Gaingels. The funding will be used to expand the pipeline by acquiring additional failed drug safety assets and advancing early-stage clinical trials of its first asset, a PDE9A inhibitor. The company uses AI to help improve the safety of drugs and to accelerate the drug discovery process.

Following a positive recommendation from the National Institute of Care and Excellence, patients in the Midlands can now benefit from a new robotic procedure for enlarged prostate from the Birmingham Prostate Clinic. Aquablation Therapy uses a high-speed, heat-free waterjet guided by robotics, to precisely remove excess prostate tissue, widening the urethra and improving symptoms associated with the condition.

Did you know

Accessing GP appointments has topped the list of public concerns about the NHS, according to a new poll published 25 February by the Health Foundation and Ipsos.

The poll findings were based on fieldwork carried out at the end of November 2025 and shed light on the public’s attitudes to health and care under the new Labour government.

The desire for better access to GP appointments was named as a top priority by 38% of respondents. In addition, improving wait times in A&E (33%), and improving working conditions to help retain NHS staff (29%) were both rated more important that waiting lists.

In contrast more than a quarter of the UK public (27%) rank lengthy waiting times for routine hospital services as a priority. Sir Keir Starmer, prime minister, has pledged to meet the 18-week waiting time standard for routine hospital treatment by the end of Parliament.

The survey also revealed strong support for the three shifts that form part of the focus of the government’s 10 year health plan for the NHS, which is expected to be published in spring 2025.

Eighty six per cent of respondents support a move to preventing sickness and not just treating it; 82% name moving more care from hospitals to communities as a key priority and 73% support better use of technology.

What we’re reading

The Information Commissioner’s Office is recommending a privacy-by-design approach for the adoption of digital health products in its Tech Horizons 2025 report.

The report explores the development of a group of new technologies, including digital diagnostics, therapeutics and healthcare infrastructure such as digital twins, AI-assisted diagnosis and smart pills, and the potential privacy and data protection risks they may bring.

It notes that ensuring that personal information is processed securely, transparently, fairly and lawfully will allow patients to reap the full benefits of the innovations being made in the healthcare sector.

“As the digitalisation of healthcare proceeds, we recommend that providers adopt digital solutions that implement privacy by design.

“To do this, they should follow our guidance on data minimisation and consider the use of PETs [privacy enhancing technologies], where appropriate,” the report says.

 Upcoming events

18-19 March, Digital Health Rewired 2025, NEC Birmingham