Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”.
👇 News
🤖 NHS Oxfordshire and NHS Buckinghamshire Talking Therapies services have introduced an AI-powered chatbot to meet the demand for mental health support and give patients new referral routes. The chatbot, called Limbic, offers a tool to help patients seeking support for depression and anxiety which is designed to complement services delivered by therapists.
💰 Manchester-based health and sports tech startup Prorizon has secured £400,000 in pre-seed funding. Prorizon’s app enables individuals to monitor and manage their mental and physical stress. The startup will use the funding to enhance its platform through the integration of AI technology. It also hopes to expand its footprint in the sporting industry over the coming 12 months.
🏆 DigitalHealth.London has been named as one of England’s top health accelerators by the Financial Times, Statista and Sifted. The ranking positions DigitalHealth.London as the third leading hub for founders seeking to grow their digital health companies. In total, 150 centres were selected from an initial list of approximately 3,000 hubs. Out of the 19 hubs for health, DigitalHealth.London ranked 15th across the UK and Europe.
🦴 Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has opened a new virtual fractures clinic at North Mids hospital. Patients with an injury or suspected bone fracture who visit the hospital’s emergency department or minor injuries unit can be referred directly to the new clinic, where a consultant will review their scan remotely. Patients receive their treatment plan within 72 hours of their scan.
📱 Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust (PCFT) and Virgin Media O2 Business have opened a digital hub at Birch Hill Hospital in Rochdale, which aims to support NHS employees with digital skills training and improve accessibility to key tech resources. PCFT has rolled out three digital care hubs, with the newest facility at Birch Hill Hospital offering walk-in services and serving as a “one-stop shop” for digital support.
❓Did you know?
Virtual wards saw a 16% rise in admissions across Sussex in 2024, with a total of 6,921 patients supported compared to 5,980 in 2023, according to Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust.
Most of these patients (83%) were aged over 65, with respiratory conditions accounting for 33% of patients and with 41% needing care for factors influencing health status and contact with health services.
Sussex Community’s new general virtual ward went live on 5 August 2024 and is currently being delivered by its H@H and UCR teams. It cared for more than 5,500 people in 2024, with each patient spending an average of even days on the ward.
📖 What we’re reading
‘Artificial intelligence for modelling infectious disease epidemics’, published in the journal Nature on 19 February 2025, explores how AI could be used to predict, manage and mitigate the outbreak of new diseases.
The study, published following February’s AI Action Summit in Paris, France, outlines the role AI can play in accelerating infectious disease research and better preparing society for a new, Covid-like pandemic.
It notes that, while medical applications of AI have so far mostly focused on individual patient care or supporting clinical decision-making, recent advances have made the technology increasingly viable for population health applications, even with limited data.
The study was led by the University of Oxford in partnership with international academic, industry and policy partners.
In a statement, lead author Moritz Kraemer, a professor at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute, said: “In the next five years, AI has the potential to transform pandemic preparedness.
“It will help us better anticipate where outbreaks will start and predict their trajectory, using terabytes of routinely collected climatic and socio-economic data. It might also help predict the impact of disease outbreaks on individual patients by studying the interactions between the immune system and emerging pathogens.”
He added: “Taken together and if integrated into countries’ pandemic response systems, these advances will have the potential to save lives and ensure the world is better prepared for future pandemic threats.”
🚨 Upcoming events
29–30 May, London — Digital Health World Congress