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Fabian Sutch-Daggett
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COVID pandemic hits women’s mental health hardest, new research shows
New research shows the impact the pandemic has had on Britons’ mental, financial, and social wellbeing
The COVID pandemic has hit women’s mental health harder than men, according to independent research on behalf of Circle Health Group, the UK’s largest private hospital group.
Almost half of the women surveyed (44 per cent) said the pandemic has negatively a ected their mental health, compared to 32 per cent of men. Notably, there was not a single mental health symptom where more men said they were su ering than women.
Compared to men, women su ered particularly when it came to social anxiety, di iculty sleeping, and lack of concentration.
Key drivers of women’s mental health problems compared to men were limitations on social life and family concerns.
Women also thought life is more unlikely to return to how it was pre-pandemic compared to men, fewer said they felt safe at going back to work than men, and a smaller proportion said they felt comfortable socialising in public or private places.
“The pandemic has taken a serious toll on a lot of people and the burdens have been particularly heavy on women. Even though we all became experts at Zoom meetings, only half of women say they took the time to talk to family or friends about the problems they were having – and far fewer spoke to a medical professional or therapist,” says Amanda Dorkes, an Executive Director at Circle Health Group.
“Lots of people made lifestyle changes like changing diet or taking up new hobbies. These are great and can really help, but if you’re struggling it’s crucial you find a friendly ear as it can make all the di erence to how you’re feeling.”
“There was a lot of talk at the height of the pandemic about how working habits would be unrecognisable when it came to an end,” says David Cooper, Chief People O icer at Circle Health Group.
“But it seems we’re creatures of habit, and most people are already comfortable and feeling safe about getting back to the o ice. Employers should take a lot of credit for this, both in terms of the e ort they’re putting into making the o ice a safe place to go and getting that message across.
“But, at the same time, they shouldn’t forget that for many people a hybrid model of working from home with a few days a week in the o ice has become the new normal. Demand for safety measures is still high, with five out of six people saying they expect employers to take steps to make them feel comfortable, should they get back behind their desks full time.”
The poll also found: • An age divide: • Younger Britons (aged 18-34) are much more optimistic about life returning to the way it was before the pandemic than those in older age brackets – 47 per cent of 18-34 y/o vs 41 per cent 3554 y/o vs 28 per cent of 55+ y/o. • The same group also had the largest proportion who said the pandemic had had a positive impact on their mental health. • Medical concerns: • The pandemic has le 4/5 people worried about how quickly they can access professional medical advice if needed. • 1/4 people are more likely to turn to private healthcare for procedures than they were before the pandemic, with the majority (58 per cent) of respondents saying they were not confident they would get prompt access to NHS treatment if they needed it. • Willingness to get into the o ice: • Workers are ready to head back to the o ice, with 70 per cent saying they felt safe returning to work • Three out of four (76 per cent) said they are comfortable being back in the o ice. • However, they seem keener than their bosses, with just 24 per cent of respondents saying employers expect them back in the o ice. • Some employees have di erent expectations for returning to the o ice, including the 1/20 who expect to be allowed to bring pets in to make them comfortable in the o ice.
AdviseInc, a company that utilises AI data analysis to help organisations save money through spend analysis and price benchmarking, has won the SME of the year award at the British Data Awards 2022
Hosted at the prestigious Lansdown Club in London, nearly 160 companies entered the award, with AdviseInc taking home the win.
“It’s great to receive recognition for the hard work our team puts in, day in day out, for our healthcare customers. We share a common passion to help the NHS make sense of the billions of pounds it spends on goods and services, helping to improve e iciency and drive down costs across the board,” says Mat Oram, CEO and Co-Founder of AdviseInc.
The SME of The Year award recognises the organisations that are using data to help build a ‘new possible’ while powering the economy through data innovation. Amongst the finalists for the award included Corndel, E ini, Good-Loop, Local Data Company, Metapraxis, So ware Solved, and The Data Shed.
Run by Predatech, the British Data Awards help to discover and celebrate the organisations that are passionate about data, no matter their size, with firms taking part including FTSE 100 giants, tech unicorns, innovative start-ups, public sector bodies, not-for-profit organisations, and many more.
“We recently celebrated our eighth anniversary, and this award allows us to truly appreciate everything we have achieved over the years,” says Mat. “With some exciting new projects on the horizon, the future is bright for AdviseInc, and I am looking forward to working with our customers and partners to build a better, more sustainable NHS. Thank you to everyone who has been with us on our journey and supported us along the way.”
Monkeypox risk to global public health is ‘moderate’ says WHO
The multi-country outbreak has been reported in more than 23 member states where the virus is not endemic
Since 13 May 2022, monkeypox has been reported in 23 nations where the virus is not endemic. The vast majority of reported cases so far have no established travel links to an endemic area and have presented through primary care or sexual health services.
“The identification of confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox with no direct travel links to an endemic area is atypical,” said WHO in a press statement.
As monkeypox is a very rare disease, one case of monkeypox in a non-endemic country is considered an outbreak. The sudden appearance of monkeypox simultaneously in several non-endemic countries suggests that there may have been undetected transmission for some time as well as recent amplifying events.
As of 26 May, a cumulative total of 257 laboratory confirmed cases and around 120 suspected cases have been reported to WHO, and no deaths have been reported.
“The situation is evolving rapidly and WHO expects that there will be more cases identified as surveillance expands in nonendemic countries, as well as in countries known to be endemic who have not recently been reporting cases,” says WHO.
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically much less severe. The more dangerous pathogen of smallpox, Variola Major, had a fatality rate of 30 per cent, according to the CDC. Through a vaccination campaign the smallpox virus was eliminated, with the WHO declaring smallpox as eradicated in 1980.
The monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
“Historically, vaccination against smallpox had been shown to be cross-protective against monkeypox. However, immunity from smallpox vaccination will be limited to older persons since populations worldwide under the age of 40 or 50 years no longer benefit from the protection a orded by prior smallpox vaccination programmes,” says WHO.
While one smallpox vaccine (MVA-BN) and one specific treatment (tecovirimat) were approved for monkeypox in di erent countries, in 2019 and 2022 respectively, these countermeasures are not yet widely available in most countries and not at all in some.
“Currently, the overall public health risk at global level is assessed as moderate considering this is the first time that monkeypox cases and clusters are reported concurrently in widely disparate WHO geographical areas, and without known epidemiological links to non-endemic countries in West or Central Africa,” says WHO.
The public health risk could become high if this virus exploits the opportunity to establish itself as a human pathogen and spreads to groups at higher risk of severe disease such as young children and immunosuppressed persons; a large part of the population is vulnerable to the monkeypox virus, as the smallpox vaccination, which confers some cross-protection, has been discontinued since 1980 or earlier in some countries.
Mobile maternity transport service set to expand across Tanzania as new $10m investment launches
The mobile ‘m-mama’ service that provides emergency transport for pregnant and postpartum women will now be scaled up to cover more than 50 per cent of the national population across 15 regions
Starting from 2022, the expanded m-mama programme in Tanzania is expected to transport more than 300,000 women, empower more than 1,400 community transport drivers and could save more than 9,000 lives.
Launched in 2013, m-mama is a tailor-made service o ering emergency transport to assist pregnant and postpartum women during medical emergencies including obstruction labour, in addition to neonatal patients who need to get to a hospital or treatment centre.
The m-mama solution has already contributed to a reduction of 38 per cent in maternal deaths and 45 per cent in perinatal deaths in the Shinyanga region alone, supporting the Tanzanian government’s strategy to tackle maternal and newborn mortality in the country.
The programme was co-created by Vodacom Tanzania Foundation, Vodafone Foundation and the Government of Tanzania and was successfully piloted in 6 Tanzanian districts including Shinyanga and Sengerema.
“This simple platform has enabled over 12,000 women and babies in one region to access emergency medical care. Over 200 community drivers have enabled this urgent transport for moments when an ambulance is not immediately available. Now with the support of the Tanzanian government, the m-mama programme will be integrated as a government-backed service, supplementing the ambulance service that will provide much-needed emergency transport for more than half of the population of the country. Our ambition in time is to expand this platform further to other countries where a simple community driver system platform supplementing the ambulance service can save lives,” said Andrew Dunnett, Vodafone Foundation Director.
The m-mama service uses a centralised ‘Dispatch and Control’ system for managing emergency transportation, optimising the use of government ambulances supplemented with community drivers. m-mama is built on simple, robust technology that can be practically used in rural and semi-rural settings.
In the pilot phase, which ran from 2013 to 2022, the programme reached over 10,455 women and 2,200 newborns with over 200 drivers registered and trained as community taxis.
With full government endorsement, both Foundations have committed to invest $10m USD over six years to roll out the programme, guided by a steering committee from Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and public health delivery agency PO-RALG. Over the next six years, the government will increase its funding and the programme will be fully integrated into the healthcare system by 2027.
“At Vodacom, our purpose is to build better futures and create productive societies. Core to this is the belief that technology must help bridge divides and improve equitable access to services. We believe that technology coupled with the country’s enabling environment and political will has the potential to support African nations to realise transformation in healthcare, agriculture, education, financial services and other priority sectors,” said Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub at an event to launch the new programme.
“Too many pregnant women, women in childbirth and newborns die each year from largely preventable causes. For nine years, we have been working with the Government to develop a practical, sustainable and scalable solution to reduce maternal and newborn deaths in the country. We have built a system that strengthens health care delivery and connects the community and lower-level health facilities to responsive emergency transport,” said Vodacom Tanzania’s Managing Director, Sitholizwe Mdlalose.
Revolutionary radiation measurement technique could transform cancer treatment
A medical device pioneer has secured a patent for the latest version of its technology which can provide accurate measurements of radiation inside a patient’s body using strings of tiny glass beads, an approach set to transform radiotherapy treatments across a range of cancers
Currently, radiation oncologists prescribe a level of radiation that balances the targeting of a tumour with the tolerance of surrounding healthy parts of the patient’s body. Radiation levels are monitored from outside of a patient’s body with a substantial margin for error of +/- 10 per cent.
The technology uses strings of up to 300 glass beads, each 1mm thick and 1.7mm in diameter, which are inserted into the patient’s body around the area being targeted with radiation. The glass beads have natural impurities that trap energy which confines the free electrons created when matter is ionised by radiation. The beads are then heated to around 350°C, releasing stored energy in the form of light, which is proportional to the absorbed radiation. This light is then measured to determine the amount of radiation being transmitted to an area of the body.
Known as DoseMapper, the technology enables oncologists to fine tune radiation doses by building highly accurate models of radiation exposure using hundreds of measurement points from inside the body. It can reduce the error margin to less than +/- 5 per cent, substantially decreasing the risks of overexposure to radiation, which occurs during as many as a quarter of radiotherapy treatments.
TRUEinvivo, the developer of the technology, was founded by Dr Shakardokht Jafari, who is also Chief Technology O icer. Dr Jafari was inspired to transform cancer treatment a er her own father passed away from cancer and, as a breast cancer survivor, she is acutely aware of the impact of radiotherapy on patients’ quality of life.
“Radiotherapy is a vital treatment in the fight against cancer, but can prove a blunt tool with radiation levels hard to measure and accurately target,’ she says. “Our technology has the potential to transform radiation treatments by dramatically reducing unnecessary radiation exposure and increasing tumour control probability. We are excited to refine the technology further and increase adoption to improve welfare and health outcomes for patients undergoing cancer treatments.”
So far, the company has received more than £414,000 in funding from Innovate UK including a £170,000 grant from the Sustainable Innovation Fund, which the company used to commence preclinical testing. They developed so ware to automate the detection of beads in patients’ CT scan images, and built a stringing machine to automate production of the threads of beads.
DOSEmapper technology is currently in use at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool and the surrounding areas, with further hospital partnerships ongoing as part of pre-clinical trial work. TRUEinvivo’s ambitions are to expand its manufacturing process in the UK and grow its operations across Europe, as well as gain regulatory approval to expand into the US and Asia-Pacific region.
“What Dr Jafari and the TRUEinvivo team have achieved is nothing short of incredible,” says Jonny Voon, Head of the Sustainable Innovation Fund at Innovate UK. “TRUEinvivo’s technology has the potential to transform radiotherapy and we are proud to have supported them to help make the team’s ambitions a reality.”
Ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations increased 94 per cent in 2021
A new survey, “The State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2022” has shown a large increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations
The study displayed a 94 per cent increase in ransomware attacks on the organisations that took part in the survey. In 2021, 66 per cent of healthcare organisations were hit, compared to 34 per cent the previous year, showing big increases year-on-year.
“Ransomware in the healthcare space is more nuanced than other industries in terms of both protection and recovery,” said John Shier, a senior security expert at Sophos, who commissioned the survey.
“The data that healthcare organisations harness is extremely sensitive and valuable, which makes it very attractive to attackers. In addition, the need for e icient and widespread access to this type of data – so that healthcare professionals can provide proper care – means that typical two-factor authentication and zero trust defence tactics aren’t always feasible.”
While these attacks may be on the rise, healthcare organisations are getting better at dealing with the a ermath of ransomware attacks, according to the survey data. The report shows that 99 per cent of those healthcare organisations hit by ransomware got at least some of their data back a er cybercriminals encrypted it during the attacks.
Additional ransomware findings for the healthcare sector include:
• Healthcare organisations had the second-highest average ransomware recovery costs with $1.85m, taking one week on average to recover from an attack • 67 per cent of healthcare organisations think cyberattacks are more complex based on their experience of how cyberattacks changed over the last year; the healthcare sector had the highest percentage • While healthcare organisations pay the ransom most o en (61 per cent), they’re paying the lowest average ransoms,
$197,000, compared with the global average of $812,000 (across all sectors in the survey) • Of those organisations that paid the ransom, only 2 per cent got all their data back • 61 per cent of attacks resulted in encryption, 4 per cent less than the global average (65 per cent)
“Healthcare organisations are particularly vulnerable, and when hit, they may opt to pay a ransom to keep pertinent, o en lifesaving, patient data accessible. Due to these unique factors, healthcare organisations need to expand their antiransomware defences by combining security technology with human-led threat hunting to defend against today’s advanced cyberattackers,” says John.
More healthcare organisations (78 per cent) are now opting for cyber insurance, but 93 per cent of healthcare organisations with insurance coverage report finding it more di icult to get policy coverage in the last year. With ransomware being the single largest driver of insurance claims, 51 per cent reported the level of cybersecurity needed to qualify is higher, putting a strain on healthcare organisations with lower budgets and less technical resources available.
In the light of the survey findings, experts from Sophos recommend the following best practices for all organisations across all sectors:
• Install and maintain high-quality defences across all points in the organisation’s environment. Review security controls regularly and make sure they continue to meet the organisation’s needs • Harden the IT environment by searching for and closing key security gaps: unpatched devices, unprotected machines and open Remote Desktop Protocol ports.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions are ideal for helping to close these gaps • Make backups, and practice restoring from them so that the organisation can get back up and running as soon as possible, with minimum disruption • Proactively hunt for threats to identify and stop adversaries before they can execute their attack – if the team lacks the time or skills to do this in house, outsource to a
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) specialist • Prepare for the worst. Know what to do if a cyber incident occurs and keep the plan updated
