CERA PLEDGES TO TRAIN 500 REFUGEES FROM AFGHANISTAN

UK tech home care provider, Cera has pledged to train up and employ 500 refugees from Afghanistan as carers.

The startup will work with 160 local councils and the government to recruit, train and employ refugees who come to the UK amid the crisis.

The home care provider uses technology to deploy services such as social care, nursing and repeat prescriptions in people's homes.

As part of its resettlement programme, the UK has pledged to welcome 5,000 refugees in the next year.

The move may boost the UK's workforce in the social care sector, which currently has around 112,000 vacancies.

ALDER HEY CHILDREN'S NHS FT LAUNCHES INNOVATION LAB

Alder Hey Children's NHS FT has launched an accelerator programme, which will enable tech startups to trial their initiatives in the hospital.

The Innovation Lab will run for 14 weeks and will aim to discover solutions that can strengthen Alder Hey's paediatric healthcare and mission to support its young patients.

The programme is run in partnership with corporate innovation specialist L Marks and is sponsored by DPD and Regatta. The sponsor companies will provide hands-on support during the 4-week commercial validation trials.

The Lab will run with two sprints planned. During the initial 10-week sprint, the startups will be given access to trust stakeholders in order to draw on their expertise as well as test out their solutions.

AI SOLUTION FOR GASTRIC CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Israel's AI-based cancer diagnostics company, Ibex Medical Analytics and KSM, the Research and Innovation Center of Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel's leading HMO, has announced the deployment of Galen Gastric at Maccabi’s pathology institute.

The move will make it the first laboratory in the world to use AI for detecting cancer in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

"We are excited to add Galen Gastric to what is the most comprehensive AI deployment in pathology, supporting us in providing quality diagnosis to our patients,” said Judith Sandbank, MD, director of the Pathology Institute at Maccabi Healthcare Services. “The clinical benefits from using Ibex’s AI solutions have been the key driver in Maccabi’s decision to fully adopt digital pathology, and we are impressed by how fast AI technology has become an indispensable part of our diagnostic pathway. We look forward to benefiting from its new insights in everyday practice.”

RADAR HEALTHCARE SOFTWARE TO BE ROLLED OUT IN UAE

The Emirates Health Services (EHS) has selected UK-based compliance and risk management provider, Radar Healthcare to deliver its quality and compliance software to 17 hospitals and 73 primary care centres.

The system will support them in delivering clinical incident reporting and patient safety outcomes. Radar Healthcare has partnered with MEMITS Solutions, a Dubai company providing IT solutions for the healthcare industry in the Middle East region, to deliver its quality management software to the UAE.

H.E. Dr Yousef AlSirkal, assistant undersecretary for Hospitals, said: “Our key focus is to improve patient safety. We believe that incident and risk management reporting offered by Radar Healthcare’s accredited system and MEMIT’S expertise in delivering cutting-edge solutions, will support us in achieving the safest patient care in the UAE region.”

IRELAND DEPLOYS NEW NATIONAL LAB SYSTEM FOR COVID-19 TESTING

Ireland’s National Virus Reference Laboratory has moved its SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing hub onto the latest version of CliniSys’ laboratory information system.

The move to WinPath Enterprise aims to future-proof capacity and thereby reduce turnaround times at the NVRL’s Satellite Laboratory Backweston (NSLB) in County Kildare.

NVRL director Dr Cillian De Gascun said: “It would be hard to overstate how important the relationship with MSC, CliniSys, and the HSE was when it came to our being able to handle that volume of work. In addition, it’s important to recognise the vital role the NVRL laboratory information management system (LIMS) plays in feeding data – including test results from its associated laboratories at Enfer and Backweston – to the HSE, public health teams, and the national testing programme.

“It was clear that we would not be able to maintain the quality of our service without putting Backweston onto WinPath Enterprise. So, it is great to see them go-live.”

UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS PLYMOUTH TRIALS AI SOFTWARE

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) is trialling Brainomix software to interpret scans and select appropriate stroke treatment for patients.

Brainomix will enable patients to be flagged on the system in under a minute, which can make a significant difference for stroke care, where traditional methods take about 20 minutes.

The software was funded and provided by the national AI in Health and Care Award for the next three years, a programme which aims to accelerate testing of technologies likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

VEON BEELINE TO BRING MOBILE AI TECH TO MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND RESEARCH

Amsterdam-based provider of connectivity and internet services, VEON has announced that its mobile operator in Russia, Beeline, is collaborating with Russia’s Sechenov Medical University to develop the use of AI technology in diagnostic medicine.

The partnership will combine the use of neural network pattern-matching algorithms to enable early detection of damage in hip joints, and to identify kidney disease and potential cancers. 

Beeline’s AI technology was originally developed to support the ‘Lisa Alert’ project; an initiative to locate and rescue missing people in Russia. Lisa Alert uses advanced algorithms as part of a suite of technologies to locate individuals through drone imaging analysis. The same AI technology will now be provided to medical researchers at the Moscow-based Sechenov Medical University.

EIT HEALTH'S BRIDGEHEAD FIRST PROGRAMME FOR SYNERBY WITH EIC

Network of health innovators, EIT Health has announced the opening of their ‘Bridgehead’ programme to health startups supported by the European Innovation Council (Bridgehead Call for EIC Ventures), in the first roll out of activity for their recently agreed pilot collaboration.

The year-long ‘EIT-EIC CollabPilot’ project will seek to create synergies between the two organisations for the purpose of enhancing Europe’s innovation and technologies in healthcare.

The project was funded via Horizon 2020 with €1 million and is coordinated by EIT Health. It will allow startups to move between selected EIT Health and EIC programmes and therefore find the best support depending on their needs and opportunities.

“We are happy that the EIT and EIC pilot collaboration is now stretching its wings via three new Horizon 2020 funded projects, among which is the ‘EIT-EIC CollabPilot’ coordinated by EIT Health. The collaboration will provide the opportunity to test synergies between organisations and programmes, exchange ideas, support the best innovators and entrepreneurs and reach out to local innovation communities. We look forward to collaborating with EIT Health,” said Jean-David Malo, director of the European Innovation Council.

COUGH MONITORING SMARTPHONE APP INCORPORATED INTO RESPIRATORY RESEARCH

Spain-based cough monitoring smartphone app, Hyfe has announced that their technology is now being incorporated into respiratory research in Spain in partnership with the University of Navarra. 

Hyfe is an AI platform that detects and tracks coughs as they happen in real-time via a smartphone or wearable device and participants will use the platform to monitor their nighttime cough patterns.

Involving over 800 participants, the study will introduce AI technology and cough detection smartphone applications into epidemiological research for the first time.

The trial is taking place in the city of Pamplona, Spain and the neighbouring municipalities of Cendea de Cizur and Zizur Mayor. Participants were selected through the Zizur health centre and the University of Navarra who have consented to take part in the study.