Digital Health Podcast- Royal Society of Medicine

What happens when the timescales of rigorous evidence are fundamentally incompatible with the speed of health technology?
In this episode, we're joined by Paul Wicks-research neuropsychologist, former BMJ editorial board member, and independent evidence strategist- to explore one of health tech's most pressing unsolved problems.
We discuss why the traditional publishing system is struggling to keep pace with AI, how companies are navigating and sometimes circumventing the evidence landscape, and what a more strategic approach to research actually looks like in practice.
We also ask the bigger question: does evidence generation in health tech need to be redesigned from the ground up, and if so, who should be leading that conversation?

In this episode, Annabelle is joined by Deb Cohen, author of Bad Influence, to explore how social media has become a major source of health information and how it is reshaping the way medical ideas, diagnoses, and treatments are promoted and consumed. We discuss the rise of the health influencer, the booming online market for health and wellness products, and why persuasive storytelling often outperforms traditional medical evidence. From parasocial relationships to fear-based narratives, we unpack the techniques being used to sell health online, how they interact with regulation, and what this means for patient safety, trust, and the future of medical truth in an attention-driven digital world.

In this episode, we explore what informed consent actually looks like when AI is involved in patient care. Annabelle is joined by Anthony Searle a barrister specialising in medical law, and together they unpack how UK consent law is created, how it applies to a world of clinical decision support, autonomous algorithms, AI scribes, and black-box models. They discuss when AI may change the risk profile of care, whether patients need to be told when AI is being used, and the practical challenge of explaining risks and limitations when even developers may not fully understand how some systems reach their outputs.
With no case law, formal NHS guidance, or professional consensus yet on AI-specific consent, this conversation focuses on what can be done now. Including practical principles clinicians, healthcare organisations, and healthtech companies can adopt today- from transparency with patients, to clinician training, to AI providers being clearer about the known, and unknown, limitations of their tools.

Cybersecurity in healthcare is not just an IT concern—it’s a clinical risk. As systems, data, and devices become increasingly connected, vulnerabilities can directly impact patient safety, from disrupted hospital operations to compromised data and malfunctioning medical devices. In this episode, Florence shares insights from her unique background across aerospace, cybersecurity, and healthcare, and introduces TIPPSS—Trust, Identity, Privacy, Protection, Safety and Security—a practical framework for managing cyber risk at a systems level. This conversation explores why we must move beyond securing individual technologies and start thinking holistically about protecting patients in an increasingly digital and interconnected healthcare system.

What does it really take for the NHS to become a better partner for healthtech? In this episode, Annabelle is joined by Liam, to unpack why so many innovations struggle to move from pilot to practice. Drawing on insights from his recent workshop with the NHS Innovation Accelerator.
Full NIA report can be accessed here