Digital Health Unplugged

This episode of Digital Health Unplugged, brought to you in partnership with Philips, explores how innovative financing models could help NHS trusts modernise services while improving productivity and patient care. Jordan Sollof, reporter at Digital Health News, is joined by Stephen McMillan, strategic partnerships leader at Philips , to discuss the limitations of traditional capital procurement....

Karen Jewell, chief midwifery officer in the Welsh government, joins Digital Health Unplugged to discuss the rollout of a single digital maternity record across Wales and the lessons for the wider NHS. Wales has become the first UK nation to introduce a single digital maternity record across all seven health boards to improve how maternity information is recorded and shared between services. In th...

The latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged explores how technology alone is not enough to deliver the productivity gains needed across the NHS. Host Jordan Sollof is joined by Tera Allas, co-chair of the NHS Productivity Commission, which was launched by the Health Foundation think tank in May 2025 to identify solutions that can support productivity growth in the NHS in England. The podcast fo...

Digital Health Unplugged returns as host Jordan Sollof is joined by Lawrence Tallon, chief executive at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to discuss the newly published blueprint for regulating AI in healthcare. The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare published its recommendations today (10 September), setting out how the UK can give patients f...

In the latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged, host Jordan Sollof is joined at NHS ConfedExpo 2026 by Dr Peter Thomas and Kate Warriner for a deep dive into the proposed NHS single patient record (SPR). The government’s NHS Modernisation Bill includes a requirement for all NHS providers to share patient data to create a SPR, which it says will help join up fragmented health information and imp...

Host Jordan Sollof is joined in the latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged by Alcidion’s Paul Deffley and Tracy McClelland to discuss patient flow and why getting it right is essential for safety, efficiency and patient experience. Deffley, UK managing director and chief medical officer, and McClelland, chief clinical information officer at Alcidion , discuss the firm’s new handbook on improvi...

Winning the Rewired Pitchfest 2026 competition has put women’s health in the spotlight, but Daye’s founder Valentina Milanova tells Digital Health Unplugged that the UK is still "falling behind" on care, research and investment. In the latest podcast episode, Tammy Lovell, editor at Digital Health News, speaks to Milanova about the urgent need to rethink women’s health and why progress has been sl...

This special report from Digital Health Unplugged explores whether the NHS’s shift to digital is improving access to healthcare or creating new barriers. The government’s 10 year health plan sets out a move towards a ‘digital by default’ service, with the NHS App as the system’s ‘front door’ and an ‘online hospital’ planned to help reduce elective wait lists. Proponents argue this transformation w...

This episode of Digital Health Unplugged, recorded on day two of Rewired 2026, focuses on rolling out the federated data platform (FDP) and ambient voice technology (AVT) at scale in Leicester and Northamptonshire. Host Jordan Sollof is joined by Will Monaghan, group chief digital information officer (CDIO) at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) and University Hospitals of Northampto...

This podcast episode recorded at day one of Digital Health Rewired 2026 explores how technology and data can help deliver neighbourhood health. The NHS 10 year health plan includes the creation of a Neighbourhood Health Service, which aims to bring care closer to home and reduce healthcare inequalities. Neighbourhood health teams will bring together multi-disciplinary professionals to focus on pat...

The latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged explores what it takes to successfully scale innovation in the NHS and why so many startups fail. Unplugged host Jordan Sollof is joined by Mindy Simon, co-director of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), an initiative to support promising health innovations to spread across the NHS, and NIA alumni Elina Naydenova, co-founder and chief executive of H...

In the latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged, Marcus Baw calls for a rethink of NHS technology strategy, arguing that the service has drifted away from open source and in-house capability. Baw, a GP, clinical safety officer, clinical informatician and software engineer, criticises NHS England’s quiet removal of its open source policy webpages, dismissing the explanation that this was part of...

In this episode of Digital Health Unplugged, Judy Faulkner, founder and chief executive of Epic Systems, shares her journey from maths puzzles and early programming to building one of the world’s most widely-adopted electronic patient record (EPR) systems. Speaking to Tammy Lovell, editor at Digital Health, Faulkner reflects on how she started Epic in a basement in 1979 with a handful of programme...

The latest episode of Unplugged, in partnership with BridgeHead Software, explores why the NHS must move beyond ‘analogue to digital’ to ‘digitalised’. Digital Health Unplugged host Jordan Sollof is joined by Adam Coombes, product owner, HealthStore at BridgeHead Software , and Andy Meiner, founder of SI Squared , to examine the hidden barriers to interoperability. The pair argue that data only be...

In this episode of Digital Health Unplugged, Charlotte Refsum, director of health policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, explains why a single patient record is becoming increasingly important in the age of AI. Refsum tells Tammy Lovell, editor at Digital Health News, that as AI, data and digital technologies begin to reshape health systems, data unification is critical to support s...

In the first episode Digital Health Unplugged episode of the year, Beverley Bryant, chief digital officer (CDO) across three trusts in Dorset, reflects on her involvement in a national rapid review of electronic patient record (EPR) programmes across acute NHS trusts. Bryant, who is CDO at University Hospitals Dorset, Dorset County Hospital and Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trusts,  ...

In the latest episode of Digital Health Unplugged, Paul Jones, chief digital information officer (CDIO) at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, delves into the details of the 10 year health plan. In conversation with Jordan Sollof, podcast host, Jones discusses the digital ambitions in the government's 10 year plan and why they should not be treated as "a silver bullet" for efficiency. He also shar...

On World Mental Health Day 2025, this powerful episode of Digital Health Unplugged delves into the importance of including the patient voice in the development of digital mental health technologies (DMHTs). Podcast host Jordan Sollof is joined by Holly Coole, senior manager for digital mental health at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and Grace Gatera, a lived experi...

Ahead of speaking at Digital Health Rewired 2026, Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive at The Health Foundation, gives her views on the NHS 10 year health plan. In conversation with Digital Health Unplugged host, Jordan Sollof, Dixon stressed the importance of the 10 year health plan moving beyond ambition into clear actionable steps, particularly around digital transformation and service delivery....

Host Jordan Sollof is joined by the co-directors of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) to discuss how the NHS can attract female innovators and those from underrepresented groups. Mindy Simon and Jack Porter discuss how the NIA provides “wrap-around” support and acts as a bridge between innovators and the NHS. They then make clear that the NIA is encouraging and targeting applications from femal...

This episode of Unplugged, in collaboration with Digital Health Networks sponsor CereCore International, focuses on delivery of the 10 year health plan. Podcast host Jordan Sollof is joined by Sir David Sloman, senior advisor to CereCore International and former chief operating officer at NHS England, and Andrew Hine, managing director at CereCore International. The pair welcome the publication of...

Digital Health Unplugged host Jordan Sollof is joined by Dame Barbara Hakin, chair of the Health Tech Alliance, to discuss the role of healthcare technology in the government’s NHS 10 year health plan healthcare technology. Hakin, former deputy chief executive at NHS England, highlights some of the digital ambitions laid out in the plan, including the introduction of innovator passports to help fa...

Unplugged host Jordan Sollof is joined by three of the Digital Health Awards 2025 winners to discuss how they are driving digital transformation and give their thoughts on the NHS 10 year health plan. Amy Freeman, chief digital information officer (CDIO) at University Hospitals of North Midlands, was named chief information officer (CIO) of the year at Digital Health Summer Schools 2025. She also...

This podcast episode, in partnership with Digital Health Networks sponsor Imprivata, focuses on all things mobile technology in healthcare. Host Jordan Sollof, reporter at Digital Heath News, is joined by Louise Clarkson, chief nursing information officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Daniel Johnston, associate chief nursing informatics officer and director of clinical oper...

Digital Health reporter Jordan Sollof is joined by returning guest Mark Hutchinson, vice-president of healthcare strategy and transformation at Altera Digital Health, to discuss electronic patient record (EPR) procurement, optimisation and delivering tangible benefits. Hutchinson shares his unique perspective, shaped by his time working within the NHS and leading on EPR deployments at several larg...