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 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is developing a digital education program for all UK allied health professionals (AHPs) which is planned to launch in November 2025. Ahead of the programme, they are gathering a baseline of digital competence and capability of all UK AHPs and are encouraging members to complete a short survey. You can read more about the survey and access it here.

💡Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust has opened its new Healthcare Innovation Hub. Located at St James Business Park in Knaresborough, the dedicated environment has been created solely for innovation and research, where new developments in healthcare services can be identified, developed, tested and introduced, with the goal of improving the health and care of patients.

🛠️ Work has started on a state-of-the-art endoscopy unit at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust’s (NUH) Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC). Backed by a £12 million investment from NUH and NHS England, the project involves an update and expansion of the existing unit into a larger, more modern facility. The unit will add a third procedure room, enabling more procedures to be performed each year. 

✅ Navigate Health has acquired Patient.info, one of the UK’s most visited health information platforms with more than eight million monthly users. Posting the news on LinkedIn, Navigate Health said the acquisition formed part of Navigate Health’s broader strategy to create a more personalised and accessible digital healthcare experience, with Patient.info playing a key role in guiding users from health information to relevant services and care.

✨ Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has launched a series of projects to improve the experience of patients and staff. A group of twelve innovators have been selected as part of the Innovation Fellowship programme to turn their creative ideas into practical improvements, one of which includes an app that gives clearer information to patients when they stay for treatment. The programme is run each year to surface clever ways of improving how hospitals work. 

🤝 Ramsay Health Care UK has introduced the Loop workforce app from RLDatix as part of its ongoing efforts to modernise workforce management. The app is designed to streamline day-to-day tasks for staff by offering digital access to rotas, leave requests, shift bookings, time logging and team schedules. It also includes tools for internal communication, such as messaging, announcements and feedback features. The rollout forms part of Ramsay’s broader workforce evolution programme. The company said the implementation supports greater efficiency and ease of access for employees, including the introduction of single sign-on.

❓Did you know?

Generative AI tools may boost productivity, but new research suggests they could also take a toll on mental health.

A study published in the Journal of Management of 100 call centre workers in South Korea who used AI assistance. It found that, while the technology helped them learn and perform better, it also caused information overload that made it harder for workers to focus and recover after work. 

The researchers warned that overreliance on AI at work could lead to greater isolation and burnout if human connection and support are neglected.

📖 What we’re reading

The study ‘Cumulative Burden of Digital Health Technologies for Patients With Multimorbidity’, published in JAMA Network Open on 25 April 2025, examines how poorly coordinated digital health tools might overwhelm patients with multiple chronic conditions.

The authors look at a scenario in which a patient with five common long-term conditions – type 2 diabetes, hypertension, COPD, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis – would need to use at least 13 separate apps and seven devices to access the functions that clinicians consider important.

Only a handful of the 148 technologies reviewed were designed to support more than one condition.

The study calls for a more integrated, patient-centred approach to digital health, warning that the current model risks undermining care for people with complex needs.

🚨 Upcoming events

22 May 2025, online – Celebrating healthcare transformation at scale