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

💭Atos has announced the launch of three new sovereign AI centres across the country in  a bid to boost the UK’s digital resilience. The company has designed the centres, located in Nottingham, Birmingham, and Andover, to give UK organisations greater control over their data, cloud, and AI operations amid global and regulatory pressures.

🏏Leeds Beckett University will open a Sport Health Tech Incubator that uses research to help tackle health inequalities, enhance innovation, and drive business growth in the region’s health tech sector. The Incubator will be based within the Carnegie School of Sport and is backed by a £1.1 million investment from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

💻Tech organisation Plug And Play has invested in HealthTech startup Daiser as one of eight UK companies on its new investment programme. Daiser is a modular AI-powered platform that aims to simply the process of building, buying, and deploying digital health services.

💊Imprivata, an access management solutions provider for healthcare and other sectors, has announced the acquisition of Verosint, a company in the identity threat detection and response sector. Imprivata says the acquisition is part of its efforts to enhance enterprise access management for frontline staff, knowledge workers, and third parties.

📡A cloud-first digital pathway platform developed to improve care coordination across health and social care has launched. ProtoFlex aims to accelerate the ongoing digital transformation across healthcare, and support the goals set out in the NHS 10 year plan.

❓ Did you know that?

A global study by BSI, published in October 2025, found that an AI “governance gap” is emerging as businesses pour money into AI tools and products without oversight or protective processes in place.

The research found that while business leaders are chasing productivity boosts and cost reductions by investing large sums in AI, evidence suggests many are sleepwalking toward significant governance failures.

The global study, combining an AI-assisted analysis of more than 100 annual reports from multinationals and two global polls of more than 850 senior business leaders, provides insight into how AI is publicly framed in communications, alongside executive-level insights into its implementation.

A total of 62% of business leaders expect to increase investment in AI in the next year, the majority citing boosting productivity and efficiency (61%), with half (49%) focused on reducing costs. A majority (59%) now consider AI to be crucial to their organisation’s growth.

However, less than a quarter (24%) reported that their organisation has an AI governance programme, although this rose modestly to just over a third (34%) in large enterprises.

📖 What we’re reading

A policy expert at The King’s Fund has taken a deep dive into how AI will be deployed as part of the national NHS planning guidance.

Pritesh Mistry, fellow of digital technologies, says that AI deployment is focused on two areas – AI scribe deployment across hospitals and general practice, and the use of AI triage within the NHS App.

“These tools [AI scribes] show promise to reduce admin work and cognitive load while improving patient experience.

“However, they are positioned as a significant productivity boost with the expectation of staff seeing more patients, which risks staff being overburdened and burnt out. There’s a need to monitor and adjust implementation appropriately,” Mistry wrote.

He adds that there is unclear evidence that AI triage tools are ready for the large number of patients and their diverse needs.

“If tools are more risk-averse compared to existing staff-enabled processes, it will increase workload for the system,” he adds.

“The framework accelerates the use of AI but arguably does not do enough to create the momentum to realise the vision of ‘make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world’ by the end of the 10 year health plan.”

He adds that the guidance highlights the importance of patient empowerment, but there is little guidance on how to do it, and staff needs regarding technology are not mentioned.

“Without staff engagement and support, technology will remain underutilised and not deliver the changes so sorely needed,” he concludes.

🚨 Upcoming events 

19 November 2025, 12.30pm to 1.30pm, Digital Foundations for Neighbourhood Care