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
🏥 Visitors can now step into a virtual reality (VR) version of Lanarkshire’s new hospital thanks to an immersive digital experience. The Immersive Suite brings to life plans for the new University Hospital Monklands, set to open at Wester Moffat, Airdrie, in 2031. Operated by NHS Lanarkshire’s Monklands Replacement Project, the VR experience features a 900-square-foot lecture theatre where sections of the hospital can be projected on three walls, offering a digital preview of the hospital’s inner workings.
💰 Aston University’s Advanced Services Group (ASG) has secured a leading role in a new £7.1m initiative to accelerate the UK’s net zero ambitions. The five-year Decarbonising the Commissioning and Delivery of Healthcare programme brings together a consortium of top UK universities and industry partners from across healthcare and the NHS. Aston University is one of seven selected National Transdisciplinary Hubs, each of which will receive a share of £42m to support research that enables a fair and healthy transition to net zero.
📊 The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) has launched a framework designed to help pharmaceutical companies digitalise their manufacturing processes. The blueprint provides a roadmap for integrating digital technologies, overcoming data silos and enabling real-time release for drug manufacturing, with the aim of driving the industry toward automation. It has been developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, Atos, AWS, Capgemini, GSK and Siemens.
🩻 Healthcare technology company Ezra has launched its “AI-powered” full-body MRI scan in the UK. The system assesses 13 organs and can detect more than 500 conditions within a single 60-minute session, according to Ezra, reducing scan times and enhancing radiology workflows. Screening is now available at Alliance Medical’s clinic in Marylebone, London, with plans for a nationwide roll-out later in 2025.
♥️ Digital diagnostics company PocDoc says its app-based Healthy Heart Check platform is now the leading generator of QRISK3 scores in the UK. QRISK3 is a measure for assessing the likelihood of an individual having a heart attack or stroke. PocDoc’s smartphone phone-based platform offers users a QRISK3 score alongside a cholesterol profile, body mass index score and heart age calculation, analysed via a finger-prick test.
❓Did you know?
Less than a third of UK health and social care providers are currently using AI technology, according to research from Access HSC, part of The Access Group.
A survey of 1,134 employees across 12 UK industry sectors in September 2024 found that just 30% of health and social care organisations are using AI tools – one of the lowest adoption rates among all industries surveyed, ranking just above not-for-profits (29%).
Despite slow uptake, respondents in the sector identified a number of benefits.
Of those using AI, 83% report positive impacts, including reduced workloads, improved productivity and cost savings. Around 76% of respondents in the sector agreed that their organisations would benefit from using AI tools.
📖 What we’re reading
The Tunstall whitepaper, ‘Advancing Technology Enabled Care – Who Cares and Who Pays?’, published on 7 April 2025, examines how telecare could support more sustainable models of care by helping people remain independent.
The paper focuses on the need to move away from reactive approaches that respond to crises after they happen. It argues that technology-enabled care can support earlier intervention and help people stay at home for longer, reducing pressure on services.
Evidence from existing programmes suggests this can reduce the use of emergency services and delay the need for more intensive support, the report says. Despite this, the whitepaper finds that adoption of proactive telecare remains limited.
One reason is that the costs and benefits fall to different parts of the system. Local authorities often fund telecare, but the financial savings tend to appear in healthcare, making long-term investment difficult to justify.
The report also highlights the impact of access criteria and eligibility rules, which can prevent people from receiving support until their needs become more severe.
Patti Wynn, chief health and care strategy officer at Tunstall, said: “We are at a key moment of opportunity here in the UK, as the Government and partners grapple with the future of the NHS.
“The opportunities presented by technology are evolving at pace, and to address the challenges of funding pressures from an ageing population, now is the time to ‘invest to save’.”
🚨 Upcoming events
24 April, London – Does the UK Life Science and Technology sector Need the US?
