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 

???? Life Sciences Hub Wales has launched its Innovation Directory for Wales, allowing users to effortlessly search and filter through an extensive list of organisations in Wales found within its thriving innovation ecosystem. The Innovation Directory is free to access and features over 260 life sciences-related organisations based in Wales, along with: innovation support organisations offering information, advice and guidance; health and social care organisations including Health Boards, Regional Partnership Boards and arm’s length bodies; academic institutions; and government organisations such as the Development Bank of Wales 

⚕ Machine learning tools can accurately forecast an unplanned hospitalization event during concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) using patient-generated health data from wearable devices, according to a study published recently in JAMA Oncology. The research team indicated that the toxic effects of CRT can result in treatment interruptions and hospitalizations. These can, in turn, lead to increased healthcare costs and reduced treatment efficacy. 

???? An expansion of same day emergency care services across the country has seen thousands more people every week get the rapid tests and treatment they need to avoid an overnight stay in hospital – with the total up by more than a tenth in just a year. New NHS data shows there has been an 11% increase in number of people who were admitted to hospital as an emergency complete their care and be discharged on the same day, meaning hundreds of thousands more patients received the urgent care they needed in a matter of hours, freeing up wards beds for others who needed them. 

???? Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health have applied artificial intelligence (AI) to a technique that produces high-resolution images of cells in the eye. They report that with AI, imaging is 100 times faster and improves image contrast 3.5-fold. The advance, they say, will provide researchers with a better tool to evaluate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal diseases. 

????‍???? When integrating AI tools in healthcare settings, complex interactions between technologies and primary users are not always fully understood or visible. This deficient and ambiguous understanding hampers attempts by healthcare organizations to adopt AI/ML, and it also creates new challenges for researchers to identify opportunities for simplifying adoption and developing best practices for the use of AI-based solutions. A study reported in Nature fills this gap by documenting the process of designing, building, and maintaining an AI solution called SepsisWatch at Duke University Health System.   

❓ Did you know that 

Only a fraction (18%) of the estimated 602,391 Britons who struggle with alcohol dependency are receiving the help they need and 2,400 people search for ‘alcohol detox’ online every month in the UK, according to addiction rehabilitation experts at Rehabs UK. The organisation cites cost as a main barrier to recovery; they have launched a new home detox service.   

???? What we’re reading 

An AI app claims it can detect sexually transmitted infections, but doctors are scathing, about Calmara, the app that says it can identify STIs from photos of penises. The Los Angeles Times reports. 

???? Upcoming events 

16 April, Cambridge – CHIME CIO Summit – CHIME International 

24-25 April, ExCeL London – Digital Healthcare Show