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 

📢 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital respiratory consultant Dr Sundari Ampikaipakan has recently presented at two conferences showcasing service development and efficiencies made by using the Virtual Ward to manage respiratory patients. The NNUH Virtual Ward was set up in February 2021 primarily for Covid-19 patients. Dr Ampikaipakan was one of the early adopters of the service. She presented these findings at the British Thoracic Society. Earlier this year she also spoke to more than 150 delegates at the European Respiratory Society conference in Milan, the largest gathering of respiratory professionals to be held in the world. 

🤝 TheHill, which supports digital innovation within the health sector across Oxfordshire, has been successful in securing the support from the Barclays Ecosystem Partnership Programme, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The support will provide early-stage digital health businesses with the tools they need to overcome the barriers of beginning their start-up journey working closely with the needs of staff at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH). 

📈 Leading provider of cancer screening and diagnostic tests, Exact Sciences, has announced its new data supporting optimisation and individualisation for breast cancer patients. The new data will be presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and includes new analysis and research surrounding Exact Sciences’ innovative Oncotype DX test. This test predicts the likely benefit that patients (HR positive, HER2 negative, early-stage breast cancer) will gain from chemotherapy. The research specifically shows that from a comparison of the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score test, the Nottingham Prognostic Index, and the Predict Breast Cancer tool, the Oncotype test was the most strongly associated with chemotherapy recommendation. 

⛔ Millions of people are suffering from digital health inequality because of poverty, experts have warned. A new study says urgent work is needed to ensure those from deprived areas can access healthcare as the NHS increasingly turns to the use of apps and online health portals for the provision of healthcare. A team of doctors and academics found a “significant association” between increased poverty and reduced use of digital services. Their modelling estimates that this association accounts for 4.27 million patients across England who have not downloaded the NHS app. In October 2022 it was estimated more than 37 million patients had activated the NHS App – 67.9 per cent of the population. 

💸 The global AI in medical imaging market size is estimated to be worth over $14.2 billion by 2032, increasing from $762.84 million in 2022. The market is expected to expand at the double digit CAGR of 33.1% during the forecast period 2023 to 2032, according to a report done by Precedence Research. 

❓ Did you know that? 

New research from identity expert at Digidentity, the leading online identity verification for UK doctors which is partnered with the General Medical Council, shows that £544,000 per organisation is being wasted on locums and overtime to fill gaps due to slow recruitment identity checks. That is over 100 million for the 215 NHS trusts in the UK. The equivalent of 1360 nights in an NHS hospital or 15 nurses for a year per organisation. 97% of organisations concur that recruitment delays are pervasive in the healthcare sector and 61% report a reduction in productivity, while 58% are concerned about the impact on patient care. 

📖 What we’re reading 

Decoding AI hallucinations in health care: Embracing a new era of medical innovation – written by Harvey Castro. Source: KevinMD.com.  

🚨 This week’s events 

6 December 12:30-13:30 – Digital Health Webinar: How to maximise your Electronic Patient Record investment to effectively advance healthcare 

8 December 12:30-13:30 – Digital Health Webinar: Accelerating Healthcare Insights – Rapidly unlocking value from your data