Here we cover some of the latest stories in health tech that have caught our eye recently. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on over the past couple of weeks.
£90k grant awarded for new slit lamp cameras, plus new way of monitoring pacemaker trialled at Musgrove Park Hospital
A £90k grant has been given to Musgrove Park Hospital by the League of Friends to help “improve and expand eye treatments at the hospital” through the purchase of two new “state of the art slit lamp cameras”. The camera will be used to get a clear view of potential eye damage or disease through a test that assesses every part of the eye, supporting the 750+ patients seen each week at the hospital.
Musgrove Park Hospital are also trialling a new way of monitoring pacemakers, through a research project which is being led by cardiology registrar, Dr Stewart Brown and supervised by consultant Dr Guy Furniss. Five years ago, they started giving patients who have pacemakers a small monitoring device and using the data to help detect heart failure earlier, with Dr Brown explaining, “when they go to sleep, the device runs a number of checks around midnight, and all that data is fed to us, which helps us to predict whether a patient’s heart is failing in response to a pacemaker”.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside reports 7 million monthly patient log-ins via the NHS App
The majority of hospitals across Cheshire and Merseyside are now using the NHS App, allowing patients to book and manage appointments through the digital platform. According to NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, “almost four million patients aged 13+ in the North West have already registered for the NHS App (as of March 2025), with around seven million patient log-ins each month and 53,000 appointments being managed on the App monthly”.
The Walton Centre in Liverpool has reported that “89% of patients have opted to be contacted via mobile and digital channels, freeing up call lines for the 11 percent of patients who prefer to be contacted by phone” with the percentage of patients not turning up for appointments falling by five percent.
End-of-life planning platform, MyWishes rollout in Lancashire and South Cumbria
Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB have introduced the digital end-of-life planning platform, MyWishes across the region in order to “improve advance care planning”.
The website reportedly allows residents to share care plans and preferences for their health, as well as enabling the documentation of end-of-life choices, including what they’d like to happen to their property and digital content when they pass away. It also facilitates will writing and allows users to “document their funeral wishes, write or record a self-authored obituary, make necessary plans and leave goodbye messages to family and friends in the event of their death”.
Digital phone systems and online consultation forms used to tackle 8am rush in South West London
NHS South West London has reported new findings showing an increase in the number of GP appointments within the region. According to the ICB, there’s been a 24.7 percent uplift, with an 20,000 increase on the same period from the previous year, taking the total appointments to “more than 738,000”.
To tackle this increase, the ICB is aiming to “embrace technology”, using digital transformation to help ease the 8am rush, including the use of triage and online consultation forms and having all GP practices in the region upgrade to digital telephone systems. “With the new systems we have in place, we can now ensure that patients are seen in the most appropriate setting — whether that’s online, by telephone, or face-to-face,” Sutton GP Dr Raza Toosy, said.
