RECENT NEWS

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has announced the first studies to be chosen as part of a multi-year funding opportunity which aims to help the health and social care system decarbonise, reduce waste, improve efficiency and deliver better value for patients and the public.

​Infants and young children are among hundreds of patients set to receive new life-saving drugs for rare blood cancers. Around 200 patients a year will benefit from the 2 new cutting-edge treatments approved by NHS England, offering fresh hope to families when other therapies have failed.

Findings from the landmark Articulate Pro study have now been published, marking a major milestone for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in NHS histopathology laboratories and demonstrating its potential to improve and standardise prostate cancer diagnosis.

A new report from King's College London, University of Lancashire and Kingston University London, has found that the proportion of avoidable deaths among adults with a learning disability fell from 46.3% in 2021 to 39.0% in 2024.

A new study from a team including University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers is the first to show metabolites produced by certain bacteria in the gut can positively impact the body’s immune response to cancer.

Cambridge researchers have shown how commonly-used sweeteners slow the growth of certain gut bacteria. One sweetener in particular – isosteviol – when combined with the anti-depressant duloxetine significantly impaired two important gut bacteria linked to regulating blood sugar and gut health and may affect the body’s immune responses.

The UK now has some of the worst outcomes for children in Europe, with declining vaccination rates and rising asthma admissions and mental health disorders. Paediatricians warn that, without urgent action, the UK is on track to raise one of the unhealthiest generations of children in decades.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is seeking approval from its governing body to launch a landmark public consultation on a new draft Code – the professional standards of practice and behaviour for all nurses, midwives and nursing associates – and a refreshed Revalidation process which supports a culture of lifelong learning in nursing and midwifery.

Draeger Medical UK has officially opened a new, state-of-the-art Innovation Hub at its Hemel Hempstead office, marking an investment in healthcare innovation and supporting ambitions set out in the NHS 10-year Health Plan.

The UK has joined the world’s largest rare diseases research partnership, the European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA). This strategic partnership marks a significant milestone of collaboration for UK science. It offers hope for people and families in the UK who are experiencing a rare disease.

The Government has shared a new Quality Strategy for NHS-funded Care in England. Developed by the National Quality Board, the strategy aims to put quality at the centre of the NHS’s work, providing a new structured approach to making quality the organising principle for all NHS activity in England over the next decade.

Babies across England will be tested for a rare but serious genetic condition from birth, giving them the best chance of successful treatment before symptoms appear. The government will expand newborn screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) throughout the country as part of an evaluation programme. It will begin later this year and hundreds of thousands of babies will be screened thanks to the expansion of the scheme.

Wearable devices have transformed how people track exercise, sleep, heart rate and other vital signs. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are now exploring whether similar technologies could one day help monitor medicines inside the body.

All patients registered with a London GP practice can now securely start their own Universal Care Plan (UCP) through the NHS App, powered by Better and in partnership with OneLondon.

Sepsis is a life-threatening response to an infection in the body, which can cause significant damage to tissues and organs, and is estimated to cause around 4,000 deaths a year in England. ​The Government has announced that the NHS will aim to prevent thousands of deaths, by 2035, as part of a series of measures to improve the treatment of the deadly condition.

The presence of certain bacteria in the gut microbiota, and fluctuations in a person’s metabolism, can be seen in people who go on to develop type 2 diabetes years later. This has been shown in a large Swedish study led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology. The discovery paves the way for identifying people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes at an early stage, enabling preventive measures to be introduced.

Two in five women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed only after an emergency hospital admission, when they are 3 times less likely to have early stage and potentially curable disease, finds a data analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Oncology.

Neuroscientists from King’s College London have developed an approach that targets a key protein to tackle several features of Alzheimer’s disease in one go. They found that KCL-286, a drug that has previously passed Phase 1 safety trials originally developed for spinal cord injury, was able to lessen many disease-linked features of Alzheimer’s.

A new set of 10 research priorities has been published by The Intensive Care Society to help shape the future of intensive care research. The priorities were developed in partnership with the James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

GPs are under more pressure than any other group of doctors and must feel confident in regulatory processes to prevent the practise of ‘defensive medicine’, General Medical Council (GMC) Chief Executive Charlie Massey commented at the recent Pulse LIVE Cardiff event.