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 University of Glasgow has launched a scheme to help Scottish medtech innovations move from concept to commercialisation. MedTech Innovation Masters was developed in collaboration with innovation hubs, businesses, and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to addresses real-world challenges through healthcare technology.

💶 The European Commission will award €32.5m (£28.1m) to tech companies under the European Innovation Council’s Pre-Accelerator scheme. Polish company Biotts, which is developing multifunctional transdermal carrier technology for non-invasive transdermal delivery of insulin, is one of the recipients.

🛰 An island without a resident GP will have access to telemedicine thanks to a high-performance connectivity project from European tech companies Excelerate Technology, Eutelsat, and Livewire Digital. Residents of Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island, are currently forced to travel to the mainland for routine medical consultations.

🚀 Healthcare technology company Medtronic has announced the European launch of its ColonPROTM software for AI-assisted colonoscopy, following CE Mark approval. The technology offers endoscopists further insights with real-time polyp size estimation and comprehensive procedural highlights.

⭐ An Oxfordshire-based online pharmacy has recorded the highest number of ‘good practice’ findings among online pharmacies in its latest General Pharmaceutical Council inspection. Oxford Online Pharmacy demonstrated good practice across four of the five principles and 11 standards, including governance, safeguarding, staffing, and medicines management.

❓ Did you know that?

The NHS is losing more than 35 million staff hours annually to workplace friction, according to a report from Apogee.

Using Freedom of Information (FOI) responses from NHS trusts across the UK, the report finds that staff lose an average of eight minutes per day due to delays in accessing systems, moving information, and communicating with patients.

While each delay is minor, combined at scale they create a significant operational challenge adding up to more than 35 million staff hours at a capacity cost of over £1bn.

The three key areas accounting for time losses are delays in logging into systems and accessing devices, moving information between trusts, and missed patient appointments.

The findings are based on data from two FOI requests submitted to 203 NHS trusts across the UK between January and March 2026, resulting in 244 responses.

🎧 What we’re listening to

This documentary-style report from the Digital Health Unplugged podcast explores whether the NHS’s shift to digital is improving access to healthcare or creating new barriers.

The government’s 10 year health plan sets out a move towards a ‘digital by default’ service, with the NHS App as the system’s ‘front door’ and an ‘online hospital’ planned to help reduce elective wait lists.

Proponents argue this transformation will expand access and free up capacity for those who need it most, but is that promise being realised in practice or does it risk becoming a barrier for the most vulnerable members of society?

Editor Tammy Lovell and reporter Jordan Sollof investigate the human impact of the NHS’s digital revolution, starting their journey at the kitchen table with Rosemary, a widow in her 70s who feels locked out of an increasingly digital system.

Her story becomes the starting point for an investigation into the reality of digital exclusion, with insights from leading voices on health equity, including The King’s Fund, the Patients Association, the Good Things Foundation, and the NHS Race & Health Observatory.

Listen to the episode here.

🚨 Upcoming events

• 21 May 2026, Online – Scaling excellence through digital pathway standardisation
• 20 May 2026 – Ask me anything”: AI in healthcare regulation