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  

🧫 In a major report today, the House of Commons’ Science, Innovation & Technology Committee calls for steps to develop the potential of bacteria-killing viruses – called bacteriophages or phages for short – that can provide an alternative to antibiotics that are attracting growing resistance.   

🛡 AI is already changing the way we interact with technology. But it can be challenging to identify where it can have the most impact operationally. Use cases for AI are broad but work best when applied to specific tasks as a force multiplier for human teams. For many organisations, one of the most impactful AI investments they make will be in cybersecurity. 

🧑‍⚕️ Epic Systems is gearing up to unleash a wave of generative AI innovations in 2024, with more than 60 AI-related development projects in progress. In the new year, the EHR vendor aims to enhance clinical efficiency, offer personalised patient experiences, increase operational efficiency and continue advancing medicine. Their 2024 strategy includes efforts to boost clinical efficiency, personalise patient experiences, increase operational efficiency and assist physicians in choosing the right treatment by bringing evidence-based medicine to the point of care, reports Becker’s Health IT. 

🚪 Amenities Health, a leading Digital Front Door platform, announced it is now available in the Panda Health Marketplace, a trusted resource for hospitals and health systems looking to find, research, and deploy digital health solutions. Panda thoroughly evaluates and pre-vets thousands of digital health vendors so that healthcare leaders can narrow the field and expedite the selection process. Suppliers in the marketplace represent best-in-class options.  

🧬 An AI model can predict which SARS-CoV-2 variants are likely to cause new waves of infection. Current models used to predict the dynamics of viral transmission do not predict variant-specific spread. Retsef Levi and colleagues studied what factors could shape the viral spread based on analysis of 9 million SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences collected by the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) from 30 countries, along with data on vaccination rates, infection rates, and other factors. 

❓ Did you know that? 

The number of hospital admissions due to poisoning by drug misuse fell 24% in 2022/23 compared to the previous year, according to NHS statistics published in December. The number of admissions due to obesity was up 13% on the previous year, and the number attributable to smoking rose 5% compared to the previous year.

📖 What we’re reading 

AI holds the promise of identifying premalignant and advanced malignant lesions during colonoscopy that might otherwise be missed. Is it living up to that promise? It seems that depends on where, how, and by whom it’s being implemented, according to this Medscape report. 

🚨 This week’s events 

4-5 January, London – International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences