Building Better Healthcare has taken a look at the latest technologies NHS Trusts and other healthcare providers have integrated into their systems to advance their digital evolution in January 2025.
In January, the Labour government released the outcome of the New Hospital Programme review in a guidance online document, New Hospital Programme Review: Terms of Reference.
The guidance states that the New Hospital will go ahead, but the implementation of the Programme was changed.
The Labour government categorised all hospitals under the scheme into "waves" to better manage the construction process.
NHS England also released its 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance in January.
This guidance emphasised improving access to timely care, increasing productivity, adhering to allocated budgets, and driving reform.
To achieve these goals, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and providers were granted greater control and flexibility in utilising local funding to meet the specific needs of their populations.
The NHS underwent significant changes under the Labour government in January, but the drive towards digitisation continues with the government's pledges to invest, made last year.
The partnerships
The NHS Trusts or healthcare providers that have made partnerships with companies are:
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Calabrio
- St Joseph's Hospital
- Canon Medical Systems UK
- GPs in Leicester
- Consultant Connect
- Healthcare settings
- System C
- Microsoft
- GPs in England and UK hospitals
- Patients Know Best (PKB)
- Doctor-patient consultations
- Dictate.IT, part of Clanwilliam
Helpline
Mersey Care and NHS Informatics Merseyside teamed up with Calabrio, a workforce management software company, to develop a helpline that enhances Mersey Care's ability to support individuals in crisis.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest trusts providing physical and mental health services in the North West of England.
The solution involved integrating third-party products, including Cisco Webex Contact Center and Calabrio, which met the required specifications through a thorough testing process.
The solution prioritises and routes calls based on urgency, ensuring critical calls are directed to clinicians immediately.
This reduces pressure on A&E departments and provides appropriate mental health support without patients needing to attend A&E.
The use of text-to-speech features helps clinicians reduce administrative time, while real-time data within Webex allows for better management of calls, queue times, abandoned calls, call-backs, and agent availability.
CT System
St Joseph’s Hospital has installed the Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition with the brand new INSTINX, making it the first hospital in Wales and the first private hospital in the UK to benefit from Canon’s most advanced CT system.
The Aquilion ONE / INSIGHT Edition offers an optimised workflow experience that is designed to be efficient, consistent, and comfortable for patients undergoing CT scans.
It utilises automated solutions such as one-touch patient positioning, and automatic scan planning to enhance usability and improve the overall scanning experience.
By simplifying workflows, radiographers at St Joseph’s can focus on patient wellbeing, ensuring they are comfortable throughout the scan process.
Advice and Guidance Technology
Consultant Connect’s Advice and Guidance (A and G) technology connects primary clinicians, such as GPs and paramedics, with hospital consultants for expert advice and guidance.
The tech has helped nearly 7,000 patients in Leicester avoid unnecessary hospital trips in the last 12 months.
Calls are connected in 37 seconds on average and clinicians in Leicester have placed 7,637 calls and sent 1,703 messages in the last 12 months.
AI Assitant
System C, a healthcare digital solutions provider, has developed a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) solution designed to help health and social care professionals save time on administrative tasks.
The technology uses secure cloud-hosted large language models (LLMs) to generate draft documentation, referrals and tasks based on audio recordings or notes from clinician-patient or social worker-citizen interactions.
System C is integrating several Microsoft services including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cosmos DB and Azure SQL Database to develop and host the AI models in a secure, compliant cloud environment.
In healthcare, an AI Assistant interprets clinician notes and records which is then reviewed and approved by the clinician before integration into the CareFlow electronic patient record – critically maintaining the “human in the loop” while reducing administration time and improving accuracy.
This results in time savings of over 60% per task, enabling clinicians to spend more time with patients, leading to increased patient volume, and generating potential cost savings exceeding £5 million annually per NHS trust.
Personal Health Record (PHR) platform
Patients Know Best (PKB), a health software solutions company, has secured £6m in funding from Growth Lending to develop the world’s largest Personal Health Record (PHR) platform, integrating data feeds from all of England’s GPs and 25% of the UK’s hospitals.
Designed to organise data around the individual, the platform provides patients with a unified record to access and manage their health information. Integrated with the NHS App, it currently has over 4.7 million registered patients and releases more than 20 million test results each month.
Following the Labour government's announcement to digitise all NHS patient records over the next decade, the recognised B Corporation plans to use the funds to further scale its offering within the UK, as well as expand internationally.
AI-powered clinical assistant
Dictate.IT, part of Clanwilliam, a global healthcare technology and services company, has introduced an AI-powered clinical assistant to enhance its leading clinical documentation software.
The assistant transcribes doctor-patient conversations in real-time, automatically creating consultation summaries and clinical notes, saving time for healthcare professionals and reducing administrative burden.
Fully integrated with existing Dictate.IT products, the assistant can be used immediately, eliminating the need for new software implementations in busy hospitals.
Dictate.IT ensures the highest levels of security and privacy, with all healthcare data stored securely within its UK-based environment and not shared with third-party services.
Healthcare professionals maintain control throughout, with the option to review notes, check transcripts, and use smart recommendations to identify areas for further investigation or detail.