FEATURE ARTICLES

Executive Chair of InnoScot Health, Graham Watson, analyses the rise of the robots across Scotland’s healthcare ecosystem and highlights the huge potential for transforming patient outcomes.

The opportunity and the risk posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) need to be finely balanced: misdiagnoses, incorrect dosages or hacked drug delivery systems pose a tangible danger to patient health, but international regulation for AI and SaMDs is divergent and complex. Ruaidhrí Primrose and Jonathan Ripley tackle the challenges and opportunities.

Alison Arnold says that sustainable healthcare is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s an essential part of delivering safe, cost-effective and responsible services. In this article, she discusses the way forward.

Esther Coleman explains why intelligent asset tracking will be crucial in assisting Electro‑Biomedical Engineering (EBME) in delivering the Government’s NHS 10-Year Plan.

Amelia Deacon offers an insight into how the NHS can drive improvement by adopting Value-Based Healthcare and Procurement. In this article, she shares a checklist that could help ensure Trusts deliver the outcomes that matter most to patients and staff.

Christine Finch, Head of Infection Prevention and Control, at Nuffield Health, provides an insight into how Nuffield Health achieved the highest standards in infection prevention across its sites, including Gold accreditation in Aseptic Non-Touch Technique (ANTT). What can NHS hospitals learn from their experience?

Fast diagnostics have the potential to significantly shorten time to appropriate therapy for bloodstream infections at high risk of sepsis, yet significant barriers to adoption persist, warns a new report by the Office of Health Economics. The report calls for the removal of structural and workflow barriers, so that fast results translate into faster therapy.

An estimated 450,000 people are living with lymphoedema in the UK today with an estimated 250 million sufferers worldwide. At least one in five women treated for breast cancer are affected by lymphoedema. However, a UK medical first is expected to reduce breast cancer related lymphoedema by 4% to 8% worldwide with preventative treatment.

Hermione Blakiston and Erica Kantor warn that delayed diagnosis is having a negative impact on outcomes for women, while placing an increased strain on healthcare services. They look at the potential of promising biomarkers in closing the ‘diagnosis gap’.

High on the agenda at EBME Expo 2026 will be the role of healthcare technology in enabling future models of care. Professor John Sandham, Chair of the EBME Expo, provides an insight into the hot topics that will be discussed at the event and some of the key challenges for the NHS.

New analysis shows most NHS systems do not track outcomes, NICE adherence or pathways in gynaecology – despite more than 750,000 women waiting for care.

A major Cochrane review has found that nurses can safely and effectively deliver many aspects of hospital care traditionally provided by doctors. Tim Morris and Greta Westwood CBE PhD RN discuss how the nursing workforce could prepare for expanded roles with blended learning and AI‑informed decision‑making.

Mona Guckian Fisher, Former President of the International Federation of Perioperative Nurses, provides an insight into assisted dying around the World, highlighting the laws, safeguards, ethical tensions, and implications for nursing practice.

Löwenstein Medical provides an insight into the latest innovation developed to protect the lungs of the tiniest and most vulnerable patients.

Graham Johnson argues that although conventional invasive procedures (such as endoscopy) will remain an indispensable component of care, their limited presence in community diagnostic centres and lengthy waiting times underscore the need for alternative strategies that are both clinically sound and operationally sustainable.

In this article, Tony Sullivan argues that underinvestment in sterile services training is one of the most overlooked contributors to patient safety risk across UK healthcare. This department’s deceptive lack of visibility risks costing the system far more than slashing its training budget will save, he argues.

Dr. Devasena Gnanashanmugam discusses the rising rate of Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) infections and the urgent need for strategic screening and rapid diagnostics.

Patients who have undergone limb amputations will no longer have to suffer with chronic and debilitating pain, thanks to an early intervention surgical technique that takes just 15 minutes and requires no specialist equipment.

Dr. Gail Miflin OBE and Professor John Forsythe OBE, Co-Chairs of the Organ Donation Joint Working Group, call for a bolder, braver approach for organ donation in the UK. They argue that the next step change in organ donation will not come from public awareness and policy alone, but from renewed clinical leadership.

The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust have analysed the latest data on the public’s attitudes to the NHS. Despite a rise in public satisfaction, frustrations remain.