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

🎤 Language services provider Dals has seen a 71.5% increase in demand for its video interpreting service among healthcare clients since the rise in petrol prices caused by US and Israeli strikes on Iran. The company reported a 29% month-on-month increase in video remote interpreting calls for healthcare in March, a further 13% increase in April, and an additional 17% rise in May.

🔬 Health Tech Enterprise has launched a ‘Clinical Expert Community’ for medical technology innovators aiming to gain meaningful clinical insight during product development. The initiative will connect clinicians, nurses, and other health professionals with companies developing medical devices, digital health platforms, and diagnostic technologies.

🖥 A new system integration between Totara’s learning management system and SARD’s workforce and appraisal system has been developed to reduce duplication and improve data flow across NHS organisations. Totara’s system manages and tracks mandatory training and compliance for clinicians, while SARD supports medical appraisal, revalidation, and workforce planning. The integration connects these functions by automatically transferring completed training from Totara into SARD’s appraisal records.

💭 Camgenium has launched a pre-certified infrastructure spanning firmware, cloud, and compliance for connected medical device manufacturers. The ‘Foundation Platform’ provides security, connectivity, regulatory infrastructure and cloud hosting as a ready-built foundation and allows OEM development teams to focus their efforts on clinical differentiation rather than building the compliance infrastructure from scratch.

🧬 Cambridge-based bit.bio has announced the launch of a human iPSC-derived hepatocyte, called ioHepatocytes, designed to address limitations in liver toxicity testing and preclinical drug development. Developed using bit.bio’s deterministic cell programming technology, opti-ox, technology ioHepatocytes are designed to behave like mature human liver cells for extended periods of time, enabling cell manufacturing at scale.

❓ Did you know that?

Scotland’s version of the NHS App is now available for download, the Scottish government has announced.

The online service, renamed from ‘Digital Front Door’ to ‘MyCare.Scot’, is being delivered in partnership with CGI following a £27.8 million contract signed in May 2025.

Mark Alan Grey, service owner at the Scottish Government, wrote on LinkedIn: “Well done to our NHS colleagues and The Scottish Government Digital directorate teams.

“For NHS, this brings a first step to allowing patients instant access to data, and in the very near future direct mail to a mailbox rather than a paper letter that could get lost, be late, and ultimately costs time and money.”

After the initial launch in December 2025 to dermatology outpatients in Lanarkshire, the service is being expanded to hospital-based services, before including other areas such as GP practices, pharmacy, social work and social care.

📖 What we’re reading

A report has warned that some communities in Wales could miss out on the benefits of digital healthcare unless inequalities are addressed.

The review by Public Health Wales and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe found that inequities in digital infrastructure between regions cannot be minimised through isolated actions.

The review, which analysed 154 studies published between 2015 and 2024, found that while existing regulations in territories such as the European Union and the US focus on privacy, safety and accountability, they do not tend to involve vulnerable or marginalised groups when developing approaches to digital health innovation.

In addition, while most regulations focus on reducing bias in gender or ethnicity, they tend not to give as much weight to income, disability, language or location.

🚨 Upcoming events

16-17 July 2026, University of Nottingham – Digital Health Summer Schools