Industry news in brief

This month’s industry round-up features research revealing why health workers end up sending emails to the wrong people, as well as news of a partnership between an AI-powered digital pathology software company and one of the largest dermatopathology labs in the US.

Research suggests rushing around is to blame for wrong emails being sent

Research carried out by OnePoll, on behalf of Egress Software Technologies, has suggested that rushing is primarily to blame for wrong emails being sent by health and social care workers.

More than 60% of 2,000 workers questioned revealed they had sent an email by mistake because they were rushing, while around 24% said they pressed ‘send’ accidentally because they were tired. Amazingly, around 2% said they they did so because they were under the influence of alcohol.

Tony Pepper, CEO and co-founder of Egress, said: “Most of us can relate to the sudden panicked realisation of sending someone the wrong email.

“While email fails can be perfectly innocuous, they can also cause serious problems to the sender and their company if they contain sensitive details or attachments.

“At the end of the day, we’re only human and we’re going to make mistakes, but we have to have some way of mitigating this if it’s going to cause a data breach.”

Report suggests digital could help healthcare charities reach more patients

A new report by Skills Platform and Zoe Amar Communications has shown that improving digital capabilities can help healthcare charities reach more patients.

The Charity Digital Skills Report 2018, asked healthcare charities how they believed new digital advancements and improved training would effect them.

Around 66% believed it would help them reach more patients.

Dave Evans, product marketing manager at The Skills Platform, said: “Our report is an invaluable resource for healthcare charities to benchmark their progress against the sector; to track developments made since last year and to understand the overall digital trends and what the implications are.

“We have seen fantastic digital innovations such as Macmillan’s virtual nurse, which really demonstrate the power of digital to reach even more people and directly meet [the] charity’s objectives. But it is vital healthcare charities recognise the need to put digital back to the top of the agenda, otherwise they risk falling behind their competitors, who are already reaping the opportunities digital offers.”

Digital tools deemed most effective when combined with a trusted relationship with a healthcare professional

Research published in the BMJ Open has claimed that digital tools for long-term conditions such as obesity and diabetes are most effective when combined with a trusted relationship with a healthcare professional.

The research, carried out at the University of Southern Denmark, involved with 10 participants who had previously taken part in an e-health tool, provided by Liva Healthcare, for a weight loss intervention study.

The interviews revealed a number of facilitators for long term weight loss, including strong relationships between patients and healthcare professionals, which was found to be essential for driving long-term successful weight loss.

US AI company Proscia partners up with dermatopathology lab

Proscia, an AI-powered digital pathology software company, has partnered with one of the largest dermatopathology labs in the US to help the company develop its AI image analysis pathology solution.

The company will use data from the lab to ‘teach’ it’ AI software to improve its ability to recognise skin diseases with more accuracy.

Though the software is not a diagnostic tool, it is hoped the technology will provide clinical decision support by increasing diagnostic accuracy, which will speed up the lab results.

It is claimed the solution will help to accelerate the diagnostic process for around 70% of dermatopathology cases.