News by region

  • British Business Bank commits £100m to health tech investment fund

    The British Business Bank has committed £100m to a fund investing in UK health tech companies. The backing for Apposite Healthcare Growth I will be the bank's largest fund commitment to date. Apposite Healthcare Growth I will invest in innovative companies across medical products, diagnostics, life sciences tools, digital health and pharmaceutical outsourcing [...]

  • Gene therapy restores sight in six-year-old girl

    Gene therapy has helped a six-year-old girl see in the dark again after treatment for a rare inherited eye condition. Saffie Sandford, from Stevenage, has Leber's congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a rare genetic condition that prevents cells in the eye from making a protein needed for normal vision. Without treatment, her family had been told [...]

  • AcuityMD secures US$80 million funding

    AcuityMD has raised US$80m to add advanced AI capabilities to its MedTech AI platform and support adoption of medical technology. The funding brings the company's total capital raised to more than US$160m and values the business at US$955m. AcuityMD said MedTech companies face pressure not only to launch innovations successfully, but also to capture and [...]

  • First UK volunteers receive bird flu mRNA vaccine in clinical trial

    The first UK volunteers have received a bird flu vaccine in a clinical trial aimed at protecting against a possible pandemic. The jab targets the H5N1 strain of flu, a form of bird flu that has caused major outbreaks in birds worldwide and has also spread to some mammals. The risk to humans is currently [...]

  • Gig work apps pushing to deregulate healthcare jobs, report warns

    Gig work apps are pushing to loosen healthcare rules as they expand gig work in the sector, a new report warns. The report looks at how artificial intelligence is being used to staff hospitals and other healthcare facilities, warning that wider use of the technology is coming at the expense of workers' rights, protections and [...]

  • Bristol NHS Group opens doors to tech providers to inspire staff, in flagship Elevate showcase

    Health and social care staff from two NHS trusts and the wider BNSSG integrated care system will engage with tech companies on 13 May, as Bristol NHS Group advances its digital strategy and looks to take forward the 10 Year Health Plan. Bristol NHS Group’s Local Health Tech Showcase is the latest in a new [...]

  • AI chatbots recommending chemo alternatives, study warns

    AI chatbots are recommending alternatives to chemotherapy for cancer treatment, potentially putting lives at risk, a study has found. A team from the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center tested widely used bots including xAI's Grok, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Meta's AI and High-Flyer's DeepSeek. Almost half of the answers on cancer [...]

  • NIPT in 2026: How AI and next-gen sequencing are changing prenatal screening

    Article produced in association with Jeen Health Non-invasive prenatal testing has been part of UK antenatal care since the early 2010s, but the technology underneath it has changed considerably. Two developments in particular are reshaping the field in 2026: advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) that widen what the test can detect, and the addition of [...]

  • Dr-Julian to provide online mental health platform for North East and North Cumbria

    Mental health platform Dr-Julian is set to provide an exciting new service after winning funding from NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). Dr-Julian, one of the UK’s fastest-growing mental health platforms and care delivery partners, is one of only six companies selected by an expert panel after more than 130 bidders [...]

  • Patients stay cancer-free three years after clinical trial

    Bowel cancer patients stayed cancer-free for nearly three years after immunotherapy before surgery in a clinical trial. Researchers found patients with a specific type of bowel cancer showed no sign of the disease returning when they were given immune-boosting drugs before surgery. The results were described as "extremely encouraging". Dr Kai-Keen Shiu, chief [...]