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

🗓️ Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership has gone live with Totalmobile‘s scheduling solution and platform. The system will support real-time updates to care plans, eliminating delays due to illness or last-minute staffing gaps. Around 550 care staff in the region now have access to the tool.

🩺 CQC has issued its guidance on the use of AI in GP services. The guidance includes what CQC looks at when assessing safety and compliance, including whether AI tools have been procured in line with regulatory standards. It also says patients must be made aware when AI tools are used and practices should have a hazard log and risk assessment for AI tool.

👧 Nuffield Health has announced a major investment in breast cancer diagnostics and women’s health, beginning the rollout of the mammography technology with 3D screening.  Starting with its hospitals in Cheltenham and Chester, the technology is aimed to support clinicians to make faster and more accurate diagnoses. Over the summer, hospitals in Wessex, Cardiff Vale and Oxford will deploy the tech. The investment is part of a broader collaboration with GE HealthCare, which will see Nuffield Health invest £200 million in AI-enabled diagnostic imaging technology across its UK hospital network.

🛏️ Hospices in England will benefit from a £75m boost to deliver major upgrades and enhancements, as part of the government’s overall commitment of a £100m investment in December 2024. A release from the Department of Health and Social Care published on 20 July 2025, noted that hospices which received a share of £25m in February used it to support the digital transformation of services.

☣️ The government has confirmed that it will invest billions into a new biosecurity centre in Harlow, Essex. The centre will protect the country from emerging public health threats, and increase the speed and scale of research into dangerous pathogens and life-saving vaccines. Of the total multi-billion investment in the centre, £250 million will be spent by the government over this Parliament to kickstart delivery, with the full budget yet to be confirmed.

❓Did you know?

New research from St Wulfstan’s GP Surgery in Warwickshire suggests that ambient AI scribes, a technology earmarked for national rollout as part of the NHS’s 10 year health plan, can reduce GP administrative burdens. The independent study evaluated Tandem Health‘s AI assistant, which includes ambient-scribe capabilities.

The findings, based on exit surveys conducted with more than 225 patients and five GPs in June 2025, indicate that replacing manual note-taking with the AI scribe saved GPs between 1.46 and 2.78 minutes per consultation. This time saving is equivalent to up to 32 working days per GP annually.

Also the study revealed broader impacts on clinician experience and patient perception with 97.6% of GPs reporting a reduction in their end-of-day administrative workload and 100% feeling their working practices had improved.

There was also a 19% decrease in admin-related stress among GPs. From the patient perspective, the study noted a 15% increase in those who felt that their GP was fully engaged during the consultation, and a 20% rise in patients who felt actively involved in their care.

Tandem Health’s AI assistant is currently used by more than 200,000 NHS professionals through a partnership with Accurx, marking one of the most significant AI deployments in global healthcare.

📖 What we’re reading

Discussions are emerging regarding the potential need for chief AI officers (CAIOs) in NHS trusts, a role gaining traction in other healthcare systems globally.

While some advocate for a dedicated CAIO to bring strategic oversight to AI implementation, data governance and model vetting, others question the necessity of a new C-suite position given existing budget constraints and the responsibilities already held by chief information officers (CIOs).

In an opinion piece, published 17 July 2025 on Building Better Healthcare, Paul Wye, head of AI at Answer Digital, takes a closer look at the role AI is playing in healthcare and whether such the role of CAIO needs to exist – or if it can be fulfilled with a different approach.

Wye suggests that the skillset required of any CAIO would be too broad and instead encourages trusts to consider embedding AI leadership into their existing digital governance.

He recommends that teams reporting to the CIO would be better placed to actively guide and improve processes while also building domain-specific expertise in key areas like LLM deployment, imaging AI and ambient scribing.

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