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 

🔊 Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is piloting smart technology to help make hospital wards a quieter place for patients and staff. Software is being implemented on the maternity ward to silence patient call bells and instead direct audible alerts to mobile phones of staff. The pilot will measure the noise reduction and the associated benefits and if successfully extend it to other wards at the hospital. 

☁ OneAdvanced Health and Care’s cloud-based software will be rolled out by NHS National Services Scotland to support GP practices in the country in processing, sharing and storing their electronic documents. The solution will replace an older version of OneAdvanced’s software and is expected to be fully implemented in over 900 practices by next year. 

🔎 A new research paper has revealed how new medical devices, combined with advanced machine learning techniques, could offer a promising alternative to traditional spirometry for diagnosing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The paper, developed by TidalSense, incorporated data from five clinical studies. Interpretable machine learning was used to diagnose COPD and assess severity using 75-second carbon dioxide (CO2) breath records captured in these studies with TidalSense’s N-Tidal capnometer. 

🚀 Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s healthtech startup Neko Health opened its first body scanning facility in Stockholm in February last year and has gone on to complete 3,000 scans. Now it’s heading to London with a launch planned for this summer. 

📱 Results from the Bladder Emptying Disorder Therapy (BEST) Trial have found that an app-based therapy can lead to significant improvements in the lower urinary tract systems experienced by millions of men. The study explored pelvic floor training, behavioural therapy and bladder control techniques, all delivered as an app-based therapeutic. 

❓ Did you know that? 

The purchase of a new Epic EHR has contributed to Cleveland-based University Hospitals’ operating losses in 2022 and 2023, Cleveland.com reported last week.

The acquisition of the new EHR, along with rising employee expenses and inflation, were cited by University Hospitals as factors contributing to its second consecutive operating deficit.

🔊 What we’re listening to  

Faces of Digital Health – a podcast about digital health, exploring how different healthcare systems adopt technologies in healthcare. Its aim is to satisfy curiosity about different cultures, identify barriers to success in different countries and finding answers and advice for accelerating the success of digital health entrepreneurs.

🚨 This week’s events 

9 May, Birmingham – The Integrated Care Delivery Forum 2024