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

👁️ NHS Mid and South Essex ICS has reported a 34.8% increase in the number of patients using an online self-referral tool over the past year. Patients using its minor eye conditions online self-referral service are able to access an optometrist to tackle minor eye concerns without requiring a GP appointment. The tool enables patients to find their nearest optometry service speeding up the time it takes to access primary eye care, for conditions such as red, painful or dry gritty eyes; recently occurring floaters; sudden vision loss; or ingrowing lashes.

🍺 A study from the University of Sheffield has estimated that large-scale promotion of the “Drink Less” app could save the NHS £590 million over the next 20 years. The app, developed at University College London, could also reduce alcohol-related deaths by 4,600, and hospital admissions by 188,400 over the same time frame. To achieve these results, the university says the app needs a national mass media campaign and for GPs to promote the app too. The study also estimated that the biggest health gains were likely to be seen in the most deprived groups, helping narrow existing health inequalities. The study was published in the February 2025 Value in Health journal.

📄 University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is working to transform more than 800 patient information leaflets into new digital formats, in line with NHS England’s push for digital accessibility compliance. As well as limiting physical copies of leaflets to reduce the amount of waste generated and ensure information given to patients is always up-to-date, the project will also see online PDFs replaced with accessible web pages, capable of being read by screen readers and other assistive technology.

👱‍♀️ DERM from Skin Analytics has been awarded the EU’s Class III CE marked medical device. The autonomous skin cancer detection system solely uses AI without human oversight, and is now approved for clinical decisions in Europe. It achieved a 99.8% accuracy rate in ruling out cancer, bettering the performance of dermatologists, who typically achieve an accuracy rating of 98.9%. The Class III CE marking under the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) 2017/745 reflects the highest level of regulatory scrutiny.

🌐 Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has moved away from its legacy backup solution and selected Rubrik to bolster its cyber resilience and safeguard sensitive patient data. The trust will deploy Rubrik’s Security Cloud and SaaS Data Protection for M365, to empower its continued cloud transformation and ensure patient data is available when needed and easily recoverable following a cyber attack.

❓ Did you know

Social Work England has commissioned two pieces of research to explore how the use of AI is shaping social work practice and education.

The regulator will use the research to help it better understand how its professional standards may be affected by social workers using AI in their roles; how confident social workers feel in using AI tools ethically and appropriately; the application of AI in social work practice; and data protection and confidentiality considerations of using AI in the sector.

In addition, Social Work England also hosted a summit on AI on 4 February 2025, which looked at how extensively AI tools are currently being used in social work, the risks and opportunities it affords and concerns around ethical implications.

According to an October 2024 poll from Community Care, one in five social work practitioners are using AI tools for their day-to-day case work.

📖 What we’re reading

With NHS England confirming that 189 out of 208 (91%) of NHS trusts have an active EPR system, Building Better Healthcare is drilling down into what that really means. While it says that the 91% adoption rate is significant progress in the NHS’s digital transformation journey, it says concerns still remain around system functionality, interoperability and the need for further investment.

It says: “Ensuring that every trust has a fully operational EPR system is critical to achieving the NHS’s long-term goal of a connected, data-driven healthcare system.

“At the same time, the NHS must ensure that existing EPR systems deliver on their promises.

“This includes addressing issues like interoperability, ensuring systems can ‘talk’ to one another, and providing ongoing support and training for staff.”

🚨 Upcoming events

26 February, live event – HETT (Healthcare Excellence Through Technology) North