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

👟A University of Bristol engineer has developed a smart shoe insole with hundreds of tiny sensors that could help prevent falls among the elderly. Dr Jiayang Li, a lecturer in electrical engineering, created the smart shoe insole prototype after noticing his 89-year-old mentor was becoming unsteady on his feet. A study published by UK Research and Innovation found that falls by the elderly cost the NHS £2.3bn per year and have lasting consequences for the individual.

🧓North Yorkshire Talking Therapies has reported a rise in online therapy uptake among people aged 65-year-old and over following its participation in NHS England’s Digital Innovation Trailblazer initiative, which began in 2025. The team took part in a 100-day improvement challenge with NHS Impact, focusing on building confidence in patient online tools and digitally enabled therapies.

🚀 Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust is introducing EBO’s intelligent patient portal as part of its digital transformation programme to enhance access to mental health and community services. Dr Mark Worthington, chief clinical information officer at Lancashire & South Cumbria, said: “This technology supports our commitment to inclusive, patient‑centred care and will help our teams focus on the clinical work that matters most.”

🔬Researchers at The University of Hertfordshire Integrated Care System partnership are developing an AI model to improve patient outcomes across the East of England. Using machine learning, the model produces forecasts that show how healthcare demand is likely to change over time and models the impact of these in the short, medium and longer term.

🙍‍♀️ Almost 50,000 eligible adults living with bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis, or major depression in England and Wales are being recruited by the NHS for the world’s largest mental health study. As part of the three-year GlobalMinds study, researchers will analyse DNA alongside details questionnaires. The study, led by mental health data science company Akrivia Health Ltd in partnership with Cardiff University, will later expand internationally.

🍺 HealthTech startup Nul, a supported alcohol reduction platform that offers access to clinical care and prescription medication, has raised nearly £873,4000 in seed funding to support its UK launch, team expansion, and international growth plans. Nul launched a UK test phase in summer 2025 and has more than 120 paying customers.

❓ Did you know that?

NorthWest EHealth (NWEH) is working to reduce gender inequalities in healthcare by gathering women’s experiences through a national survey exploring knowledge of and participation in clinical research ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2026.

This anonymous data will help inform NWEH technical developments, as it focuses on establishing a national women’s health research registry designed to strengthen representation and support future sex-specific analysis.

The initiative aims to drive safer, more equitable healthcare outcomes by embedding women’s health at the earliest stages of research design.

By choosing to give informed consent to share their health data and experiences, NWEH says that women can help close the evidence gap that has historically excluded them and gain access to insights, safer treatments, and healthcare that truly reflects their needs.

📖 What we’re reading

In a blog, published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 24 February 2026, Richard Stubbs, chief executive of Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber, writes that AI in healthcare shows both immense opportunity and the need for responsible oversight.

Stubbs, who is a member of the MHRA’s National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, argues that AI can transform care, but only when “developed with rigour, transparency, and fairness”.

This means ensuring that AI training datasets are representative of the populations these tools will serve, so the technology doesn’t entrench existing inequalities, he adds.

“There is a tendency to frame regulation as a brake on innovation. In practice, good regulation does the opposite.

“By setting clear standards, providing proportionate oversight and adapting to emerging technologies, regulators create the conditions in which innovation can be developed, tested and adopted at pace,” Stubbs writes.

🚨 Upcoming events

• 12 March 2026, online – Digital Transformation: AI, EHRs, and Data Interoperability