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

🧒 Kooth, a provider of digital mental health services, has announced the acquisition of US paediatric digital health company Kismet Health’s telehealth platform. The platform has been designed with interactive and age-appropriate tools to enhance engagement during teletherapy, principally for children aged five to 12-years-old.

💉 Patients with difficult intravenous access at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals have been offered a discreet green silicone wristband designed to alert clinical teams and help ensure these patients are seen by the right healthcare professional first time. The Vygon bands are designed to reduce pain, prevent infection, and improve both patient experience and clinical efficiency.

🛌 East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has introduced RFiD Discovery’s RFID mattress tracking system to strengthen patient safety and ensure full compliance with Care Quality Commission requirements. More than 1,700 mattresses are now tagged with two passive RFID labels – one inside the cover and one external rubber tag – improving inspection rates across the trust’s existing RFID infrastructure.

🪪 CardMedic, a digital platform for clinician and patient communication, has announced a major integration with on-demand Interpretation firm LanguageLine Solutions. The partnership brings one-click access to live video and audio interpreters in more than 240 languages within the CardMedic app.

🩸 Women’s health technology startup Emm has raised $9M (£6.8m) to launch the world’s first smart menstrual cup and connected app, creating a new category of ‘smart menstrual care’. The device combines medical-grade silicone with ultra-thin sensors to capture high-fidelity, privacy-first menstrual data, tracking flow, cycle regularity, and duration.

❓ Did you know that?

A report from the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA), published on 4 December, reveals that 98% of young people now access health information online, yet fewer than 2% of TikTok health videos are accurate when measured against public guidance.

The report draws on the experiences of families involved in the DPA’s delivery programmes, alongside insight from educators, youth advocates, and researchers.

With 43% of parents saying their child has already encountered harmful or misleading health content, the DPA is warning of a growing public health risk for a generation increasingly turning to algorithms over medical professionals.

The findings come as the government prepares to roll out its updated curriculum focused on improving digital and media literacy for young people.

While 32% of 11–17‑year‑olds reported seeing vaping promotion online despite it being banned, the report also reveals that only 18% of parents are aware their child actively searches for health content, suggesting that most exposure is unintentional and shaped by algorithms rather than deliberate choice.

📖 What we’re reading

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published a report presenting findings from its research which explored how users of digital mental health technologies (DMHT) understand its potential for harm.

It also outlines how DMHT users might recognise harm to themselves or others and how they could be encouraged to report it via the MHRA Yellow Card Scheme.

The study found that although many participants had experience with mental health apps, few recognised the term DMHT or recognised significant risks, though some concerns were raised about excessive screen time, profit-driven apps, use of AI that is unfit for purpose, self-treatment, misdiagnosis, dependency, and addiction.

The research was commissioned by MHRA and NICE with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Its aim is to inform the design of future regulatory and evaluation frameworks for DMHT.

🚨 Upcoming events

16 January 2026, 12.30-1.30pm, Online – Digital Tools Proven to Shift to Wellness and Prevention