FRANCE DEPLOYS AI-BASED CANCER DETECTION

AI-based cancer diagnostics company, Ibex Medical Analytics, and network of private pathology labs in France, Medipath, have announced the deployment of an AI-powered platform for cancer detection in pathology in France.

This coincides with a global decline in the number of pathologists and increased workloads.

The process of lab cancer diagnosis through a microscope is manual and thus prone to human error. Ibex offers a clinical grade, field proven AI-based solution that helps pathologists meet these challenges.

Medipath has completed deployment of Ibex’s Galen Prostrate as part of its routine clinical practice.

With Ibex’s CE-marked solution, an AI algorithm analyses prostate biopsies and raises alerts when discrepancies with the pathologists’ initial diagnosis are identified.

IRELAND DONATES CONTACT TRACING APP TO LINUX FOUNDATION

Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) announced that is donating the code for COVID Tracker app as open source to the not-for-profit Linux Foundation.

This will enable jurisdictions worldwide to quickly build and deploy their own contact tracing apps.

The donated app has been named COVID Green.

NearForm will play a role as part of the Technical Steering Committee in managing the development and direction of COVID Green in the Linux Foundation.

The code is also being used in the app for Gibraltar and the upcoming apps for Northern Ireland, other jurisdictions in EMEA and some US states.

UK’S TEST AND TRACE SYSTEM FAILING TO CONTACT THOUSANDS

The government’s test and trace system is failing to contact thousands of people in areas with the highest infection rates in England, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

The data shows that in areas with the highest infection rates in England, the proportion of close contacts of infected being reached is far below 80%.

The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), agreed that at least 80% of contacts would need to isolate for an effective test and trace system.

Forty-seven per cent of at-risk people were contacted by test and trace in Luton, which has the sixth highest infection rate in England.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The service is working closely with local authorities across England to help manage local outbreaks. High quality data is critical to providing good public services and we’ve been providing increasingly detailed data to local directors of public health, helping them tackle local outbreaks and control this virus.”

SLOVENIA BEGINS WORK ON CONTACT TRACING APP

This week, the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration launched a tender for the creation of a contact tracing app with a budget of €40,000.

The winner of the bid was RSTEAM, one of six applicants of which only four met the budgetary preconditions set out by authorities.

The app will be based on Germany’s Corona-Warn-App that has been in use for over a month.

The app that RSTEAM is set to develop is expected to be ready for launch on 1 August.

THE SHURI NETWORK'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY

The first network for black and ethnic minority women in digital health roles, the Shuri Network, celebrated its first anniversary this week.

One year ago, at the time of its launch, the network had 60 members but it has now grown to around 650 members.

The network was launched at Digital Health Summers Schools in 2019 to help increase visibility of black and minority ethnic women (BME) in NHS technology roles.

It has since worked to create spaces that give women of colour a platform to share experiences and propel forward the advancement and contributions of BME women in digital innovation.

The network has recently launched the Shuri Fellowship which will provide future leaders training opportunities to enhance their career. They have also partnered up with the Faculty of Informatics (FCI) to supply Shuri FCI bursaries for 15 members to cover the cost of their FCI membership.