NHS Devon’s five year Joint Forward Plan to 2030, published as part of the ICB’s March meeting, has highlighted the role of digital in achieving the system’s strategic aims, and noted the importance of progress on the Devon and Cornwall Care Record and the One Devon Dataset.

For clinicians, the ICS focuses on active notifications and workflow at the point of care and access to connected data from across the system; whilst for citizens, the plan will mean only needing to tell their story once and being able to engage with health services digitally through simplified channels.

In line with the ICS’s aims around population health, tackling inequalities and enhancing productivity, the agenda for digital and data outlines several objectives for years 1-2, years 3-4, and year 5+.

For the first two years of the plan, the focus will be on increasing NHS App usage and the production of standard GP websites, implementing the national Digital Inclusion Framework and working with the PHM team to increase accessibility to digital health resources amongst underserved populations.

Noting progress with the Devon and Cornwall Care Record including reaching 20,000 users and supporting the development of the National Record Locater; the ICS’s next steps are connecting the remaining core health and care organisations and preparing the business case for re-procurement and implementation. Additional functionality will also be scoped and implemented, subject to funding, it adds.

For data, the ICS’s plans involve building on the One Devon Dataset, as well as further developing PHM data architecture and reporting by March 2026. An ICS data platform and associated reporting is also expected by 2026, along with efforts to optimise the use of national developments including the Federated Data Platform.

The plan also shares ambitions for the re-procurement of the GP EPR clinical system to be completed by March 2028, and for EPRs to be implemented in TSDFT and UHP including LIMS b7 2026.

To view the board papers in full, please click here.

Shared Care Records from across the health sector and beyond

Barry Frostick, CDIO at Mid and South Essex ICS, took to LinkedIn to announce the go-live of the ICS’s Shared Care Record late last year, highlighting the potential for the platform to “enable better connected care and safer treatment” for patients and residents. The shared care record, which has been developed in partnership with Orion Health, aims to bring together information from local health and care organisations, offering health professionals in the region “instant access” to information, which in turn can support timely treatment and more tailored care.

Sheffield City Council has become the first local authority in the South Yorkshire region to introduce the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record. Developed by Interweave, a company owned and managed by its users across 6 ICSs, the YHCR gathers separate patient records and puts them into one structured format, providing a more “complete view” of treatment and care.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also became the latest healthcare organisation to implement the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT is now also adding “inpatient discharge summaries, outpatient clinic letters and emergency department discharge summaries” to the Shared Care Record.

NHS England has issued recommendations alongside a “what good looks like” framework for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), pointing to the use of clinical digital systems for prescribing, integrating the coding process and decision support tools into clinical workflows, displaying timely and relevant clinical information, and more.

On prescribing, the recommendations outline that clinical digital systems should support clinicians by offering “appropriate” treatment choices and durations, and making it easy to record prescribing decisions. In secondary care, they should support the use of start smart then focus principles, whilst in primary care and outpatient settings, they should facilitate the use of delayed or back up prescribing strategies. The role of clinical digital systems in reviewing and revising prescriptions by offering access to key information and decision support tools, supporting electronic referral of patients to AMS teams or infection specialists where required, and flagging key clinical advice on treatment plans, are also considered.

The framework adds that these systems may also play a role in tackling inconsistency in the coding process, according to the recommendations, which point to the need for workflows in primary care to be structured so that diagnosis coding occurs prior to a prescription being generated. It adds, for systems to require documentation of diagnosis linked to the prescription in secondary care with the potential for this to be reviewed, and for all prescriptions to be linked to a coded diagnosis to facilitate audit.

Diagnostic tests, clinical decision support tools and treatment guidelines should be integrated into digital systems and be visible at key stages of the clinical workflow, the recommendations state, whilst relevant and timely information on things like recent microbiology culture and sensitivity results should be easy to view. NHSE also notes the importance of systems supporting the increased uptake of patient-facing tools by improving functionality and ease of use; interoperability between care settings; support for surveillance and reporting on key metrics; alert prioritisation; agility and adaptability to support innovation.

The accompanying digital framework for antimicrobial stewardship offers best practices for the use of IT systems, across seven success measures: well led, smart foundations, safe practice, support people, empower patients, improve care, and health populations. This looks at how organisations can ensure that their stewardship teams are supported to drive digital transformation, including through building digital and data expertise in this area, creating clear accountability and governance processes, and building partnerships with suppliers. Smart foundations also covers IT infrastructure and data, looking to workforce capacity, technical expertise, and the reliability and secureness of hardware.

Across the remaining measures, NHSE highlights steps that organisations should be taking to support the real-time use of data, optimising alerts and decision support to improve care and minimise disruptions to workflows, promoting digital literacy amongst the workforce, placing patients at the centre of service design, embedding digital and data to transform care pathways, and using data to inform care planning.

More on the use of digital from NHSE

NHS England’s board met last month to discuss operational, performance, delivery, and digital, data and technology updates. The digital, data and technology transformation update noted the Frontline Digitisation programme is on track for 96 percent of trusts to have implemented an EPR by March 2026. As of March 2025, 19 trusts are listed as having no EPR, but are in the process of procuring, or implementing one. The update highlighted that 70 percent of trusts are on track to meet the core level of digitisation maturity by March 2026, aligning with the What Good Looks Like framework.

The latest progress report from NHSE on its Rare Disease Action Plan highlights progress against its four priorities of faster diagnosis, increased awareness, better co-ordination of care, and improved access, as well as introducing three new actions, and outlining digital and data work streams. In its final year, the plan introduces three new actions, to establish a new model for clinics for multi-system disorders, improve rare disease clinical research, and support for “individualised therapies, specifically designed to a unique disease-causing variation in an individual’s DNA, addressing the root cause of the condition”.

NHSE also recently published eight principles for the “appropriate use” of digital technologies in mental health settings, aiming to provide a guide for procurement, implementation, data protection, policy, staff training and recording in patient care and treatment plans. Designed to help clinicians decide whether using digital technology is the “most appropriate, effective and least restrictive” way of treating patients in mental health settings, the principles focus on: a human rights approach, consent and capacity, equity of access, co-production, therapeutic and personalised care, safety planning, evidence base, and treatment outcomes.

The Royal London Hospital has highlighted the impact of the use of a virtual platform for its children’s cancer ward, reportedly enabling children deemed well enough to be monitored from home.

Launched in 2023, the trust noted that children with cancer are at an increased risk of infection, and when “a patient develops a fever they need to be admitted to hospital for at least 48 hours, where they can be at further risk of picking up other illnesses”. However, with the virtual ward in place, those deemed well enough after an initial assessment can return home to be cared for.

Whilst at home, patients are monitored using equipment which records their observations every four hours, with data “continuously monitored by the clinical nurse specialist team who stay in touch with the parents and can escalate concerns when necessary”.

Last year, around 44 percent of patients presenting with a fever were managed through the virtual ward, according to the trust. A video from the Barts Health YouTube account features a case study of a young patient cared for on the ward is available to watch here.

Insights on virtual wards from across the NHS

Join HTN on 29 April, 10:00 – 11:00 for a webinar looking at the future of virtual wards, taking a closer look at virtual wards in practice, exploring different approaches and learnings, as well as considering the potential for emerging technologies. With the help of our panel of experts, we’ll discuss a range of approaches to the virtual ward concept, including examples of best practice, challenges, failures and successes.

Black Country ICB has published a prior information notice for the procurement of a remote monitoring and virtual ward platform to support the delivery of “multi-disciplinary and collaborative health services”, by opening a pre-market engagement ahead of a procurement mid-2025. Valued at £600k with an estimated four-year timescale, the procurement is part of a collaborative effort covering both primary and secondary care, and The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shared an evaluation of its virtual royal infirmary programme, demonstrating the impact of its “hospital-level care directly to patients’ homes”. Since launching in June 2023, the service covers seven specialities, across acute medicine, cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, renal, respiratory and vascular care, with the hospital noting the service supports a “reduction in unnecessary hospital admissions and supports early discharge”, adding “in line with patients’ preferred choice of care”.

NHS England has confirmed a two-year extension worth up to £36 million for its national breast screening system (NBSS) IT software platform, which has been delivered by Hitachi Digital Services UK Limited since 2015. The extension means the contract will now run to 31 May 2027.

NHSE notes that the screening platform is “critical” to the provision of breast screening services, providing the ability to make bookings and onward referrals, with the notice highlighting the system is “extremely complex”. Justification for the new contract award is noted on the basis that there are no reasonable alternatives for the provision of this service.

With NBSS in use in over 70 different breast screening offices, NHSE also highlights the complex and time consuming nature of rolling out new releases, adding: “This new contract award (which is a restating of the previous contract) will provide service continuity while the future long term strategy for NBSS continues to be developed and subsequently implemented.”

Tech procurements from across the NHS

Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust has awarded a contract worth £572,000 to DrDoctor for the provision of a patient engagement portal. In a contract award notice published earlier this month, the trust shared details of the contract award, described as the “provision of services for patient engagement tools, consumables, transformation services”, made by direct award via G-Cloud 14 Lot 2 “after pre-established internal requirements were entered into the digital marketplace”.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust announced a contract award of £102,000 for a one-year deal to London-based Dr Julian Medical Group Ltd for Talking Therapies third party provision. The notice shares that the trust required an “innovative, efficient, and effective solution to support and enhance the delivery of Talking Therapies and associated Psychology services (Step 2, Step 3 and Step 3+)”, which would also offer “flexibility and responsiveness to changing needs and demands of the services and patients”.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has awarded a £307,000 contract to the virtual care solution Doccla, for its remote management platform aimed at helping patients with long-term health conditions. The contract covers the installation of the Doccla virtual ward solution, which was chosen for its ability to offer remote support to patients and scalability capabilities which will reportedly help “manage the expansion of patient numbers”. It also integrates with the health board’s “cornerstone clinical systems” in use.

The NHS.net Connect roadmap has been published, outlining plans for functionality, identity and security, Copilot adoption, Intune enhancements and more for 2025 and beyond.

For 2025, the functionality strategy timeline focuses-in on Microsoft Fabric and Copilot, voice and face recognition, Unite, Intune device migration capabilities, attack simulation, unattended RPA, machine learning-based retention, rules-based automatic retention, and Viva connections – local organisation deployment. Long-term developments include government roam and Wi-Fi, records management, Office 365 enhanced backups/retention capabilities, and power pages.

Plans for 2025 around identity and security include MDI Microsoft Defender for identity, Entra ID workload protection, Office 365 Cloud Apps Security, external MFA, and insider risk management. Digital Staff passports, access reviews, entitlement management, privileged access management, and verifiable credentials will then be looked at in the longer-term.

A technical release plan points to developments expected for SNOW, iPaaS, CoreView, Viva, and more, leading through the phases of design; build, test and release; EA pilot; Alpha pilot; Beta pilot; and mass migration. The roadmap also covers Copilot and the trajectory toward mass adoption, Intune enhancements, phone system development, Defender XDR, and NHS.net deprecation.

In a Linkedin post, delivery officer Monika Kiernicka referred to the roadmap as a “significant milestone” in the journey toward enhancing connectivity in healthcare and improving patient outcomes in the UK, adding: “With innovative features and a clear vision for the future, NHS.net Connect is set to improve the way healthcare professionals collaborate and share information.”

To view the roadmap, please click here.

Approaches to cyber security from across the NHS

We were joined for a recent HTN Now webinar focusing on sharing best practices around cyber security, by an expert panel including Neill Crump, digital strategy director at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust; Nasser Arif, cyber security manager at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust and Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Martin Knight, privileged access management at Imprivata. The session focused on key considerations for NHS organisations in their approach to cyber security, assessing cyber security maturity, good cyber security practice, the challenges in this area and tips to overcome them.

The European Commission recently published an EU action plan developed to guide hospitals and healthcare providers in increasing their cyber security. Referring to the plan as “an important step in shielding the healthcare sector from cyber threats”, the commission focuses on enhancing threat detection, preparedness and response capabilities of hospitals and health providers.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has outlined plans for the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, noting measures to enhance oversight, regulating the supply chain, and progressing CAF’s basic and enhanced profiles. It first looks to bring more entities under the scope of the regulatory framework, to “better recognise the increasing reliance on digital services and the vulnerabilities posed by supply chains” including interconnectedness, which it states can have “cascading effects on our essential services”. Managed service providers offering core IT services will also be brought into the scope, whilst the government is similarly looking to enable regulators to designate “critical suppliers” and set stronger duties for the supply chain.

UK-based medical devices company RDi has announced the acquisition of health tech innovator Inicio Health, in a move to “accelerate the development of advanced digital solutions which empower individuals to take control of their health”.

This is reportedly RDI’s third acquisition since September 2021 and combines their “expertise in self-sampling and testing kits with Inicio Health’s digital interoperability and transformation solutions”, in order to provide “more accessible” patient pathways when it comes to screening, diagnostics and preventative healthcare.

According to RDi, the acquisition will allow them to deliver an “integrated, end-to-end pathway solution, significantly improving user convenience, operational efficiency, and patient outcomes”. Other products that will transition over include incioAutomate, inicioPages and inicioHub, all of which will be used to continue to “drive significant advancements in the way people access and engage with healthcare”.

Taking to LinkedIn to share the news, Amanda Sparkes, co-founder and chief clinical officer at Inicio Health said: “What began as a bold vision between myself and my co-founder James Davis has become a purposeful, nurse-led venture, focused on breaking down barriers in healthcare and reimagining how care can be delivered beyond hospital walls.”

“By bringing our companies together, we are creating a unique end- to-end diagnostics offering allowing the individual, the laboratory and the provider to access testing and information more seamlessly. This acquisition allows us to expand our capabilities, enhance patient engagement, and ultimately improve health outcomes at scale,” David Cahill, CEO of RDi, added.

Latest stories from Inicio Health 

Last year, Inicio Health was a finalist in the HTN Health Tech Awards for Best Solution for Clinicians and Best Use of Digital for NHS Trusts, for their collaborative partnership with MKUH, focused on transforming the care of the NHS’s youngest patients with the infant jaundice inicioPage. Their project helped with reducing clinical risk for babies whilst simultaneously reducing pressure on clinical teams via a real-time, integrated digital chart embedded within the EHR.

We previously spoke to James Davis, co-founder, CEO and chief innovation officer of Inicio Health about his experience in digital healthcare, where he emphasised the start-up’s mission to “create innovative solutions designed to improve patient outcomes and experiences for everyone involved”. He also highlighted some key projects they had been working on, what the future might look like and how the NHS can successfully implement digital technology.

Stay connected to all the latest news in health tech with HTN. Discover key insights from a range of industry experts by registering for our HTN Now series of panel discussions and webinars, or find unique perspectives by reading our interviews.

Health tech company, Skin Analytics has raised £15 million in Series B funding to increase their product offering and expand overseas into “key markets struggling with dermatologist shortages”.

Led by AI-focused investor, Intrepid Growth Partners, the funding will primarily be used to “launch products that cover all dermatology concerns”. It will also help Skin Analytics to increase their reach to Europe, Australia and the US, with the aim to make their products available globally as a way to tackle the worldwide “scarcity of practitioners” in dermatology.

Their AI medical device, DERM, is reportedly already being used in 26 NHS sites, where it has detected over 14,000 cancers and is said to help in “ruling out the most high risk skin cancers 99.8% of the time”.

Founder and CEO of Skin Analytics, Neil Daly commented on the series of funding: “AI allows us to move from a world of specialist scarcity to one where we have the capacity to see everyone who is concerned about their skin. Starting with skin cancer, this funding allows us to work with our partners to build new models of care that everyone can access, whenever they want to. That brings us closer to the world where no one dies from skin cancer. We have proven this technology in the UK and are now making it available globally.”

Investing in digital transformation across health and care 

Last month we reported on healthcare AI company, Heidi raising $16.6m in its latest round of funding, to help with the development of their AI scribe, which is said to automate time-consuming note taking and document generation. The company also announced its ambient AI tech is to be introduced to 53 GP practices, following an agreement with the ‍Modality Partnership, a GP super-partnership.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recently awarded a £307k contract to the virtual care solution Doccla, for its remote management platform aimed at helping patients with long-term health conditions. The contract covers the installation of the Doccla virtual ward solution, which was chosen for its ability to offer remote support to patients and scalability capabilities which will reportedly help “manage the expansion of patient numbers”.

London and Derby-based digital messaging platform Alertive secured £3.7 million in funding from private investors to drive its UK expansion, announcing plans to “continue breaking down communication barriers within healthcare teams by integrating more third-party systems and enhancing workflows”. The platform is currently being used in 25 hospitals across 15 NHS trusts, with a reported 50,000 users.

NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB board recently highlighted progress on its digital strategy, covering its shared care record, federated data platform, Microsoft 365 Co-pilot, and the launch of its strategic digital collaborative.

The update from Chris Weiner, chief medical officer, and Andrew Fearn, joint CDIO, highlighted the launch of the strategic digital collaborative, a joint venture with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, intended to allow both ICBs to take advantage of digital opportunities from across the two systems, and to provide an overarching digital strategic vision for health and care within the East Midlands Combined Authority boundary. Focus areas for joint working have been identified across cyber security, digital procurement, the sharing of best practice, and digital enablement – benefits realisation.

The update also shares an insight into the ICB’s work on the federated data platform, where it states it is in a “positive position” as a result of its early adopter status, and thanks to University Hospitals of Derby and Burton and Chesterfield Royal being designated as incubator sites. Both acute providers are in the process of implementing solutions including referral to treatment validation and discharge planning, to allow real-time tracking and task management for the discharge process, it reports, as well as working on inpatient and outpatient care coordination solutions. “The ICB has also agreed to the implementation of ICB FDP Population Health Management instance,” it goes on. “Once fully implemented this will allow improved data sharing to support strategic commissioning and operational service delivery.”

The implementation of the Derbyshire shared care record continues with two significant developments, the update notes: the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) has been completed and ReSPECT plans are now in the integration environment for testing. “Clinically led testing is in progress and a system wide roll out will be directed by the End of Life Clinically Informed Workforce Group following successful user acceptance testing,” it states. “Once live the form will be the first read and write capability in the shared care record and digitisation of a ReSPECT form.”

Also contained in the update is information about the ICB’s work around AI and robotic process automation, where it highlights signup to the NHSE Microsoft 365 Co-pilot (pilot phase) to test using AI in a secure environment, and to see whether this can help increase productivity by assisting with document summarisation, email drafting, and the creation of presentations. Impacts from this will be explored, it continues, and will go toward informing the development of an artificial intelligence and robotic process automation strategy.

The update also notes a successful single sign-on pilot has also enabled ambulance crews at East Midlands Ambulance Service to have access quickly to patient records to support on-scene decision making.

On virtual wards, 1,104 patients have been onboarded with remote monitoring, with 11,300 days of remote monitoring undertaken, and 7 (soon to be 9) pathways live. Plans for the future of the initiative include a test case to evaluate the impact of supporting people with digital technology, it states, and the expansion of step-down pathways of care, along with the introduction of step-up (admission avoidance) in collaboration with primary care.

Digital transformation: strategy and progress from across the NHS

NHS Sussex Integrated Care System’s latest People and Digital Committee report outlines several key digital and data successes over the past quarter, including the launch of the Plexus Transfer of Care Hubs dashboard and NHS App uptake. The ICS shares how digital and data have contributed to the progress of the ICB’s Improving Lives Together strategy, with notable areas of success including the launch of their Transfer of Care Hubs in April 2024, which reportedly allows “managers and clinicians to support the discharge process” and works alongside their existing shared care record.

NHS Gloucestershire has published its first draft ICS data strategy spanning 2025-2030, pending approval from the board, marking a “bold step forward” in drawing on system strengths and transforming how data is used to improve health and care outcomes in Gloucestershire. It focuses on improving citizen-facing care, workforce empowerment, transparency, and innovation, overcoming identified issues around limited or inconsistent access to data for both staff and patients, and overcoming siloes of data to effectively respond to system pressures, monitor performance, and plan strategically for future needs.

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s (C&IoS) cyber security strategy to 2026 has been put forward for board endorsement, with ambitions to identify and managing risk; strengthen governance; embed cyber awareness and culture; critical IT systems and suppliers; and prediction, prevention, detection, response and recovery.

North London NHS Foundation Trust has published its digital strategy, with a focus on AI and data, EPR optimisation, launching an NLFT app building programme, digital foundations and infrastructure, creating a culture of innovation, and supporting staff with digital skills.

88 per cent of care homes in the South West London region now have digital social records in place, and 45 per cent are live with the London Universal Care Plan, according to an update from the ICS, which also shares that these developments are contributing to a 9 percent reduction in the number of residents taken to hospital by ambulance among the care homes using the system.

The update highlights the “particularly crucial” nature of the plan for those reaching the end of their lives, helping record their wishes about how and where they would like to be cared for, as well as personal preferences. Minh Ha, manager of Beulah Lodge in Croydon, noted how being able to see live information prior to waiting for results from a doctor was “helpful” in speeding up the discharge process; whilst Andrea Howell-Jones, manager of Alexander House care home in Merton, pointed to its usefulness in offering access to information under one roof, meaning “in case of an emergency, we just need to tell the paramedics we’re on the Universal Care Plan”.

Other tech in use in care homes across South West London includes the Magic Table, a digital entertainment system offering games and puzzles for residents and family members, said to support “a change in social stimulation and with some of the residents’ anxiety”.

The PainChek solution, is also in use in 20 care homes in the region, which utilises AI to identify subtle expressions indicating someone is in pain, supporting those who might be unable to express their pain verbally. The ICS noted that “in 2024, over 8,000 PainChek assessments were completed for more than 500 residents, improving pain detection accuracy and speed.”

Tech and data in supporting care

Last year, NHS England published a case study entitled “Improving care home residents’ wellbeing through digital technology – South Devon and Torbay”, in which Digital Health Devon, a collaboration between the NHS, Torbay council and local Healthwatch; aimed to support care homes and their residents in making the best use of SMART technology. Using an introductory pack from Digital Health Devon, which comprises of Amazon Alexa devices, a meta portal, mobile phones and Wi-Fi extenders; staff in care homes receive online training to help them to put this plan and tech in place for their residents.

In December, NHSE published its enhanced health in care homes (EHCH) framework, highlighting a series of digital enablers including digital readiness and data sharing, to support the provision of proactive care. The framework is intended for PCNs, providers and commissioners of community health and social care services, “so that the entire system works together to provide personalised care, improve outcomes and promote independence for people living in care”. It highlights changes to working practices driven by the pandemic, including the use of digital to enhance integration and information sharing.

Earlier this year, Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership shared an update on its work through the Digitising Social Care Programme, highlighting how use of online service Proxy Access is helping them to order medications “safely and quickly” as well as supporting working relationships between GPs and care homes. So far 80 care homes across the region are using Proxy Access, through which care providers can share medical information with residents’ GP practices, with nominated staff able to view and order medications, check test results or allergies, view upcoming appointment dates and book new appointments.

Pharmacy2U has partnered with the digital health app assessment platform, ORCHA, to create the Pharmacy2U App Hub, aiming to “transform healthcare access” by putting patients in control of their health.

The new hub reportedly provides access to multiple health apps all in one place, with each app having undergone “rigorous assessment” by ORCHA to offer “safe, effective, and clinically assured digital health solutions”. This includes making sure they are clinically assured, data and privacy compliant, as well as usable and accessible for everyone.

According to Pharmacy2U, the hub is a “customer centric” resource designed to help improve health and wellbeing for patients, “while also empowering them to make informed decisions about their healthcare”. It has been rolled out across the UK and made available to the online pharmacy’s large customer base, giving them access to a “wide range of pharmacy services”.

Speaking on the launch of the hub, Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO of ORCHA said, “this initiative is a crucial step in helping individuals across the UK avoid unsafe, unreliable health apps and instead access clinically assured, data-protected, and user-friendly technologies.”

Transforming health and care with digital apps: the wider trend 

NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board recently launched the women’s health app CONNECTPlus, to offer advice and guidance to patients regarding women’s wellbeing. Developed by Health and Care Innovations Ltd, the CONNECTPlus app reportedly answers questions about contraception, the menopause and cervical screening, while offering general women’s health advice around a wide range of conditions.

NHS Scotland’s operational improvement plan has been published, focusing on the roll-out of its health and social care app as the “digital front door” of their digital-first approach. The plan highlights features set to be included in the app, such as viewing hospital appointments, receiving communications, and updating personal information; sharing that an initial release will be made in December 2025.

Last month, British Heart Foundation awarded nearly £230k to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, for their Appitrator app, supporting “personalised medication recommendations”. The funding will reportedly help to further develop an algorithm they have created, which records “key patient data” such as blood pressure, heart rate, weight, and potential side effects and then uses that information to generate personalised medication recommendations.