Digital Health Coffee Time Briefing ☕

News

2 June 2026

September 18, 2025

Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”.

👇 News

💬 Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has launched a video-on-demand interpreting service, which allows staff to request and access a virtual interpreter in minutes. The service, from interpreting provider Dals, is available in a wide range of languages, including British Sign Language, and can be used across clinical and non-clinical settings.

🤝 A UK digital provider of compliance and care management, Quality Compliance Systems, has acquired CareBrain, a tech platform for the care sector. The platform addresses some of the most time-intensive challenges facing care teams, including care plan audits, supervisions, and round-the-clock guidance.

🧒 Duke Health researchers found that AI tools can analyse routine electronic health records to accurately estimate a child’s risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) years before a typical diagnosis. The research, published in Nature Mental Health on 27 April, outlines how reviewing patterns in everyday medical data could help flag children who may benefit from earlier evaluation and follow-up.

👓 Belgian neurotechnology company ReVision Implant has secured €4 million from private investors, which will support its transition from preclinical development to clinical exploration. ReVision Implant is developing a cortical visual prosthesis designed to restore functional vision in people with severe blindness, including those who cannot benefit from retinal or optic nerve-based therapies.

🤝 Bristol NHS Group, in partnership with Highland, has hosted the first Local Health Tech Showcase, bringing health and social care staff from across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire together with technology suppliers. The event welcomed more than 250 attendees and 40 exhibitors showcasing digital and physical solutions designed to address the real-world challenges faced by the NHS and its workforce.

❓ Did you know that?

An analysis reveals the UK health service is “haemorrhaging” money on outsourcing scans to be read by private companies amid a chronic shortage of clinical radiologists, while diagnostic waiting time targets continue to be missed.

Preliminary data from the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) 2025 Clinical Radiology Workforce Census report show the UK spent a record £362 million on short-term solutions in 2025, including outsourcing, paid overtime, and locums to manage excess radiology workload.

This is enough to pay more than 3,000 full-time radiologist salaries. That is more than the UK’s most recently published shortage of almost 2,000 clinical radiologists needed just to meet current demand for diagnostics.

Over the last five years, the UK has spent £1.4 billion on managing excess radiology workload.

Outsourcing scans read by private teleradiology companies accounted for £241 million of the total cost in 2025 – another record high, and a £25 million (12%) increase on 2024. The cost of outsourcing in radiology has doubled since 2021, and is on track to nearly double again, rising to £454 million, by 2030.

The analysis is based on survey responses from 100% of UK clinical directors of radiology departments. It is subject to final checks before the RCR 2025 Clinical Radiology Workforce Census is released in full in summer 2026.

📖 What we’re reading

Gordon Kay, research director at Public Voice, a not-for-profit community interest company, has written a feature about the UK Government’s consultation on creating a new NHS Online Trust and his concern it will create a two-tier service.

The aim of the trust is to reduce long waiting lists for planned care services by enabling people to have online consultations and be referred for surgery. Patients would still need referrals from a GP, but the consultant could be anywhere in the country.

But in the article, published on 16 April 2026, Kay says there is a risk that online services will work for those with easy access to reliable technology and knowhow, and leave those who do not behind.