Digital Digest: Digital Health and Social Care Monthly Bulletin August 5 August 2025
Welcome to the August edition of Digital Digest. Despite it being the summer, there’s plenty happening in the world of digital health and social care at the moment.
Firstly, if you haven’t already, I’d strongly recommend checking out the #TryATool July roundup. #TryATool has been running for almost two years now and is a weekly showcase of a different digital tool to help with your health and wellbeing. There’s also a resource booklet available in PDF and Word format on the ALLIANCE website.
This month we also look forward to a number of forthcoming events for which you should ‘save the date’. The ALLIANCE’s ‘DiGiTaL Get Together 2025’ event is on Tuesday 21 October at the Radisson Blu, Glasgow. DigiFest 2025 will take place on 11 December at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow and will be brought to you by DHI Scotland. Not to mention Renfrewshire’s DigiKnowVember, throughout the month of (you guessed) November!
Finally, a quick plug for the annual ALISS survey. The team have already seen a great response from initial calls to complete the survey. If you haven’t already, please participate – we want to hear from you!
Scottish Government publishes progress on the Data Strategy for Health and Social Care
The Data Strategy was published in February 2023. It set out the vision and ambitions for improving the use of health and social care data to deliver the best care possible for the people of Scotland. It outlined eight priority areas from ethical approaches to data, to research and innovation.
Progress in 2024 has included work on improving protected characteristic data and in 2025 the focus will be on implementing a long-term solution for the recording of race and ethnicity data.
Engagement work around AI in health and social care has begun to inform the development of a policy framework. This framework will be used to set out overarching principles to ensure safe and ethical use of AI within the health and social care sector in Scotland.
Preparation for the launch of the first iteration of Digital Front Door, the anticipated health and social care online app, is also underway. The launch will take place in December 2025 and allow a small number of NHS Lanarkshire dermatology outpatients to access their health information, appointments and information on services.
Our DiGiTal Get Together: How To Stay Human Rights Focused in a Digital Scotland event will take place on 21 October 2025 at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow. Registration will be opening soon, further comms to follow!
This year's DigiFest event - Leading with a Digital First Mindset will take place on Thursday 11 December 2025 at the University of Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow. Registration is now open.
The ALISS customisable map tool allows you to create your own ALISS map with relevant services and display it on your website. Please contact hello@aliss.org with any questions!
Health Data Research UK is offering ‘Take the Lead' micro grants of £1500 to explore the role of data in their community’s health and wellbeing. This can be anything from someone keeping a health journal, through to tracking steps and on to data from NHS appointments.
