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  

✋ MD Consents, a specialist provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for the healthcare sector, has been sold to US-based EngagedMD. Founded in 2017, London-based MD Consents is on a mission to transform the informed consent process across the UK’s healthcare industry. The company has developed a cloud-based SaaS platform for the benefit of clients in the public and private healthcare markets. 

❤ Polish medical software company Cardiomatics said it has obtained the world’s 1st MDR Certification for AI-based ECG interpretation ensuring the device’s safety and compliance with medical device regulation. In addition, it has released a software update that improves diagnostics for heart rhythm disorders and treatment decisions.

🧬 Genetic testing company 23andMe confirmed Friday that sensitive data belonging to some of its users has been stolen and offered for sale online. Although the company said its systems were not breached, hackers were able to access some customer accounts by exploiting users’ poor password practices. The extent of data theft has not been confirmed by 23andMe, nor the number of customers that have been affected. Steve Alder, editor-in-chief of the HIPAA Journal, commented on news of the breach: “The 23andMe data breach is potentially more serious than regular data breaches because people can be targeted based on their ethnicity.”

🩺M42, a global tech-enabled healthcare network, has unveiled an impactful advancement in healthcare technology with the launch of Med42, a new open-access Clinical Large Language Model (LLM). Med42 provides high-quality answers to short and long-form medical questions. The model has been developed to enhance clinical decision-making and increase access to synthesized medical knowledge for healthcare professionals, patients, medical researchers and regulators. 

😟Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), which provides specialist mental health and learning disability services across Norfolk and Suffolk, has announced openings for members of the public to join its Council of Governors. There are six vacancies: two public governors each for Norfolk and Suffolk and one carer governor for each county. Governors provide a key link between the public and the trust, representing the interests of their communities and holding non-executive directors to account for the performance of the Board.  

❓ Did you know that?

Nearly all (98%) of patients with chronic digestive conditions reported improvements after receiving video or phone counseling from registered dieticians, according to a Vivante Health study.

📖 What we’re reading 

BMJ analyses Labour and Tory health pledges: In his keynote speech to his party’s conference in Liverpool on 10 October, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said that cutting waiting lists was the “biggest challenge” facing the NHS. He pledged that a Labour government would commit an annual £1.1bn to provide two million more hospital appointments a year to tackle the backlog, which in England now stands at 7.8 million people waiting for treatment. This would be funded by ending the non-domicile tax status that allows some of the richest people in the UK to avoid paying tax. In his speech to Conservative Party delegates in Manchester on 4 October Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged that waiting lists were “patients’ most pressing concern” but that efforts to tackle the backlog were being undermined by doctors’ strikes.

🚨 This week’s events 

18 October, The King’s Fund – Population health: an opportunity to transform health and care 

18 October, Digital Health Networks – Webinar: How to maximise success through effective resource management strategies 

20 October, Digital Health Networks – EPR Implementations: Lessons Learned … Don’t do it! But, if you have to, know this …