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

🔗 UK health tech company VitalHub has announced it has acquired Induction Healthcare, a digital software company which supplies products including patient platforms Zesty and Attend Anywhere. Induction Healthcare’s solutions align with VitalHub’s mission to enable better-connected, more efficient healthcare.

🏦 The UK government’s economic development bank, the British Business Bank, has invested £3m in Portal Biotech, a developer of real-time, single-molecule protein sequencing technology. It is the second investment made under the British Business Bank’s new co-investment strategy as part of its £350m Regional Angels Programme.

💻 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is the first in the UK to deliver care on the MAMMOMAT B.brilliant, from Siemens Healthineers. The next-gen 3D mammography system is helping to transform breast imaging services at the trust. It offers 50° wide-angle tomosynthesis, flying focal spot technology and Premia AI reconstruction to improve image quality.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched a project to promote clinical research opportunities, using a network of ‘champions’ to form a vital link between its research team, clinical colleagues and patients. The trust now has more than 60 research champions who are tasked with raising awareness of research studies that patients could join.

🩺 Microsoft AI has announced Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator – which works as a virtual panel of AI physicians who use a collaborative diagnostic process by asking follow-up questions, ordering virtual tests and continuously evaluating its diagnostic reasoning. Benchmarking texts showed the system achieved an 85% diagnostic accuracy rate – four times higher than experienced physicians.

❓Did you know?

New analysis has revealed a significant increase in private investment within the UK healthcare sector over the past year. Investment in biotech and healthcare businesses grew by £1.86 bn, rising from £2.68209 bn in 2023 to £4.54245 bn in 2024.

This represents a 69.36% increase and positions the sector as the third highest for private funding growth across all UK industries.

The data was compiled by business finance experts at money.co.uk business loans from British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association information.

Despite the overall investment surge, the health and social work sector experienced a slight reduction in the number of companies securing funding through government-backed Enterprise Investment Schemes and Seed Enterprise Schemes in the last year.

However, these schemes still contributed £43 million to the sector in 2023-24, with businesses receiving an average of nearly £287,000 each.

📖 What we’re reading

The report ‘Delivering on ambitions for a neighbourhood health service’, published by NHS Providers on 30 June 2025, outlines how strengthening community and primary care services can help achieve NHS goals by keeping patients healthy and providing care closer to home.

Case studies within the report, such as those from Surrey Downs and North Central London Alliance, demonstrate trusts already working at this neighbourhood level and how they are achieving this.

These examples suggest a practical application for digital health innovations that support integrated care pathways, data-driven insights for population health management, and efficient resource allocation within localised health ecosystems.

NHS Providers says that the shift towards a neighbourhood model will require robust digital infrastructure to connect services and empower a more proactive, community-focused approach to health.

🚨Upcoming events

31 July, online event – NHS Digital Health 2025