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

💲 Women’s telehealth company Midi Health has raised $100 million in a financing round led by Goodwater Capital. The round values the company at over $1 billion. Joanna Strober, co-founder and chief executive officer of Midi Health, said: “This is validation for the movement we’re leading to provide women better healthcare. Women’s health has been treated like an afterthought for too long.”

📮 Lloyds Online Doctor has expanded its weight-loss service in Ireland, allowing eligible patients to have their prescriptions delivered to their door. Patients who have clinical weight-loss consultations will now have the option of getting their prescriptions delivered to their door by a pharmacy delivery partner or collecting them from another pharmacy.

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 A project to establish best practice in social care was launched at the AI in Social Care Summit in Oxford on 27 March. The AI in Social Care Alliance will focus on producing practical guidance, promoting training, sharing experiences, as well as creating a ‘constitution’ for the sector. The alliance aims to build a research and co-production hub to collate, commission, and facilitate international research.

💡A facility designed to accelerate health innovation in West Yorkshire has secured Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber as its anchor tenant. The Health Business Innovation Centre, based on the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus, is designed to help organisations develop, test, and scale new products and services that improve health outcomes.

⚗ Biotech startup Helical has announced a $10m funding round to advance its virtual AI lab. The lab is designed to turn bio foundation models into reproducible discovery systems so scientists can test hypotheses in-silico at the speed of inference. Rick Schneider, co-founder of Helical, said: “Pharma teams need a system that turns foundation models into workflows scientists can run, validate, and defend.”

🤰Fraiya Ultrasound has enrolled the first patients in The Fraiya Study, which is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The study is designed to evaluate how AI can enhance prenatal ultrasound by supporting sonographers in delivering more consistent, efficient, and high-quality care during routine pregnancy scans.

❓ Did you know that?

A report has revealed that NHS patients can access new treatments faster after a £137 million investment in health research reforms.

The latest UK Clinical Research Delivery key performance indicators show the average time to set up a commercial interventional clinical trial has fallen from 169 days to 122 days when compared to the same six-month period from this year to last.

The Department for Health and Social Care claims trials that once took nearly a year to get off the ground are now up and running in a matter of months, meaning patients in communities across the country have earlier access to potentially life-changing treatments.

Dr Zubir Ahmed, health innovation and safety minister, said: “The UK has always had world-class science and outstanding NHS clinicians. Today’s figures show we are now matching that excellence with a system that slashes red tape to get trials up and running at the speed patients deserve.”

📖 What we’re reading

The King’s Fund has published an analysis of the National Cancer Plan, claiming it risks falling short without an urgent overhaul of multi-disciplinary team working and further reforms.

In February the UK government unveiled a 10-year national plan to tackle cancer, which includes the increased use of AI and machine learning.

One of the key themes of the report is that the NHS is not harnessing the full potential of innovation in cancer care due to limited workforce capacity.

The document adds that clinical staff lack the time and headspace to adopt new ways of working. For example, there is a national shortfall in consultant radiologists, with all departments relying on insourcing and outsourcing to cover reporting, with a projected 39% shortfall by 2029 if trends persist. It adds that there is an expected shortfall of 19% for oncology consultants by 2029.

🚨 Upcoming events

• 28 April 2026, Online – Understanding the NHS Management and Leadership Framework in Practice
• 21 May 2026, Online – Scaling excellence through digital pathway standardisation