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   

???? A partnership between Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) and Vaccination Programme Wales has streamlined delivery of the Covid-19 autumn 2023 booster campaign. The Welsh Immunisation System (WIS) was developed in-house by DHCW at the start of the pandemic. It is the central digital system that’s supported the administration of over 9.2 million Covid-19 vaccinations to date. Health Boards use WIS to identify eligible cohorts, plan where vaccines are administered, schedule appointments and send out invites. Vaccinators use the system to record all Covid-19 vaccines administered and pharmacy colleagues record vaccine stock levels and locations.  

???? According to Technavio, the size of the global electronic health records market is estimated to grow by USD 32.27 billion from 2022 to 2027. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.91% during the forecast period. Government initiatives supporting the adoption of EHR are driving the EHR market growth.    

????‍???? The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital has secured funding alongside Aston University to develop 3D model for spinal cord injury treatment. A team from the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Aston University and the University of Edinburgh have been awarded a joint research fellowship to develop a working 3D model of the Spinal Cord, to improve understanding of the management of compressive spinal cord pathology. 

???? Japanese medical VR provider Jolly Good has announced that it is developing a virtual reality-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for the spatial computer Apple Vision Pro. The CBT VR on the Apple Vision Pro is intended to complement chronic pain treatment using opioids or serve as an alternative non-drug therapy. Similar VR-based digital therapy will also be developed for other psychiatric disorders in the future. This announcement comes as the company recently set up a subsidiary in North America to usher its expansion in the region. 

???? Post-Brexit red tape is leading to a significantly higher risk of drug shortages in the UK, with supplies of ADHD medicines, antibiotics, and HRT all at risk. That’s according to a new report looking into the impact of Brexit on medicines supply chains. The report highlights that the UK’s ability to acquire and stockpile the medicines needed by many vulnerable groups has been constrained by the increased paperwork load following Brexit.    

❓ Did you know that?  

The global digital therapeutics market was estimated to have acquired US$ 4.5 billion in 2022, and by 2031, the market is likely to reach US$43.2 billion.The increasing awareness of mental health issues and the demand for mental health support has driven the development of digital therapeutics for conditions like anxiety, depression, and stress management. 

???? What we’re reading 

The NHS enables world-leading studies, like the recovery trial during the pandemic, which discovered treatments for Covid-19. You might suppose it to be a treasure trove for AI developers eager to bring their models to bear on improving human health. Yet if you put this to a developer they will roll their eyes and tell you why all is not as rosy as it seems. That is because the kinds of tabular data that inform clinical trials — who took which drug, what the outcome was — are not the same as those most useful for training machine-learning models, such as scans or genomes, which hold more information about a patient, The Economist reports. 

???? This week’s events 

9 November, The Health Foundation – What will the NHS look like at 100? REAL Challenge annual lecture