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

🛌  The new NHS National Rehabilitation Centre is to deploy Airware Healthcare‘s intelligent bedside terminals, to help patients maintain independence while recovering from life-changing injuries and illnesses. The terminals will integrate with the centre’s systems, allowing patients to control their environment. Plus, electronic patient record integrations will mean patients are more directly involved in their rehabilitation.

📱  Camgenium has teamed up with Professor Petre Cristian Ilie, consultant urological and robotic surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to develop HealthiumPro, a cloud-based software solution. The app will allow prostate cancer patients to sign consent forms and access pre-surgery physical therapies, while for clinicians it will support the automation of writing surgical notes and allow them to remotely monitor patients’ blood pressure and temperature.

🥼  Global HealthTech company Proximie has partnered with HistoSonics to enable surgeons to share expertise about liver tumours remotely. Proximie’s cloud-based operating system will integrate with HistoSonics’s Edison Histotripsy System, which uses ultrasound to destroy cancerous tissue. Initial go-live regions for the US-based partnership include Chicago, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Seattle and Southern California.

💷  Vicebio Ltd, a MedTech developing vaccines for respiratory viral infections, has been acquired by Sanofi in a £1.2bn deal. In September 2024, Vicebio secured a £74m Series B funding round to help speed up development of its lead vaccine and future products.

🫀  MedTech innovator Ceryx Medical has closed a £15m funding round, which will help drive the development of its permanent bioelectronic pacemaker. The tech mimics the body’s natural modulation of the heart for real-time, biometric pacing. The round was supported by leading investors including BGF, Parkwalk Advisors, Development Bank of Wales (DBW) and BBI.

❓Did you know?

AI research company OpenAI is set to expand its UK presence, following a strategic partnership with the UK government focused on using AI to transform public services. The collaboration, formalised in a Memorandum of Understanding signed 21 July 2025, will see OpenAI increase the size of its London office and grow its research and engineering teams.

The partnership aims to explore investments in the UK’s AI infrastructure, expand AI security research collaborations and support the creation of AI Growth Zones – already backed by £2bn in the government’s spending review – to foster job creation and economic growth.

It also aims to identify how advanced AI models can be deployed to improve taxpayer-funded services.

Technology secretary, Peter Kyle, said: “AI will be fundamental in driving the change we need to see across the country – whether that’s in fixing the NHS, breaking down barriers to opportunity or driving economic growth.

“That’s why we need to make sure Britain is front and centre when it comes to developing and deploying AI, so we can make sure it works for us.”

📖 What we’re reading

A King’s College London study, published in BMC Medicine on 1 July 2025, indicates that increased virtual maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic was linked to higher subsequent NHS costs.

Examining more than 37,000 pregnancies in South London, the research found that for every 1% increase in virtual appointments, pregnancy costs rose by approximately £7 per person, leading to an additional NHS expenditure of over £837,000 compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The study suggests that while virtual consultations aimed to maintain access, they often led to more in-person follow-up appointments, particularly when physical examinations were necessary or if patients felt their concerns were unresolved.

This resulted in an overall rise in antenatal appointments. The research also revealed that NHS maternity costs for black and Asian women were higher during and after lockdowns compared to white women, a trend that persisted for Asian women post-lockdown.

This research was part of the RESILIENT project, led by King’s College London, and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council. The researchers are now investigating how virtual care impacted maternal health outcomes.

🚨Upcoming events

27 August, online event – Navigating your path to senior digital leadership