News
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust ends the “silent era” with CardMedic roll-out
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with CardMedic across the organisation, enabling its 6,300-strong workforce to communicate more clearly and confidently with patients who face language or communication barriers.
CardMedic is a digital healthcare communication platform that allows staff and patients to communicate safely and effectively irrespective of language barriers, cognitive impairment or literacy.
The platform provides instant access to live interpreters in 200+ languages via Language Line, alongside thousands of clinically validated scripts in multiple languages and formats, including British Sign Language (BSL), Easy Read, and Read Aloud.
It also supports health literacy for same language patients by explaining information in plain language, clearly and succinctly.
The Trust provides acute and community health services to a population of around 300,000 people across Stockport.
Pam Fearns, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, led the project’s implementation.
“CardMedic will enable patients to voice their needs where previously they may have struggled to communicate them,” she said.
“All conversations — such as asking whether someone wants a cup of tea, explaining a procedure, or offering reassurance — play a vital role in ensuring inclusivity.
“CardMedic enables equality across our services.”
With a diverse community, reliance on face-to-face interpreting has led to rapidly increasing annual costs, and communication barriers have increasingly impacted patient experience and safety.
Introducing CardMedic will help address these pressures by providing staff with a single point of access to a suite of clinically designed communication support tools.
The cost-effective, vendor-agnostic platform connects staff to the Trust’s existing language service providers via its Call an Interpreter feature, accessible on any device and any location.
Streamlined access will reduce use of disparate and ad hoc solutions, empowering staff to deliver more efficient and equitable care.
This groundbreaking collaboration will see CardMedic deployed across 455 SPARK Fusion® patient bedside devices on 20 wards at the Trust’s Stepping Hill Hospital.
This integration brings universal communication support directly to the bedside, giving patients and clinicians greater access, privacy, speed, and confidence in every interaction.
The Trust has taken a “big bang” approach to launching CardMedic, introducing it across all its acute and community settings. From day one, it has been available in all inpatient areas to maximise reach and equity of access.
Key areas of engagement include emergency, maternity, and acute medical units, supported by digital nurses, midwives, and clinical champions across the organisation.
The rollout also extends to community staff, including community midwives, school nurses, allied healthcare professionals, Macmillan nurses and district nurses.
The launch is backed by an extensive communications campaign using the slogan ‘the silent era is over’.
This term was coined by Karen Lawrence in the Digital Skills Team following discussions with the Digital Nursing Team about giving a voice to the “silent patient”.
This gave her the idea of silent movies in black and white. Now the introduction of CardMedic is bringing colour back to these patients as they are no longer silenced.
The rollout reflects the Trust’s commitment to its core CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence.
It also aligns with regional efforts to reduce inequalities and national priorities such as the Patient safety healthcare inequalities reduction framework, the Accessible Information Standard, and the Core20PLUS5 Health Inequalities Programme.
The Trust’s passion for equitable care is evident throughout the partnership.
The top five non-English languages spoken in the local area are Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish Sorani, and Cantonese. To support the Trust’s community, CardMedic is adding Kurdish Sorani to its platform for the first time.
Dr Rachael Grimaldi, CEO and Co-Founder of CardMedic, said: “Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has demonstrated what equitable care in action looks like.
“No patient will be left without a voice in their care.
“By embedding CardMedic across wards and bedside devices, enabled through our partnership with SPARK TSL, they’re enabling communication that is instant, safe, and scalable.
“The partnership won’t just improve care for patients who face a language barrier. With CardMedic’s Easy Read and Read Aloud formats, it also helps support improved health literacy when language isn’t the main issue.”
Jane Stephenson, CEO at SPARK TSL, added: “This pioneering project demonstrates how technology can strengthen patient-centred care.
“ We’re proud to be working with Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and CardMedic on embedding inclusive communication support in our SPARK Fusion® bedside devices.
“Together, we’re making healthcare more accessible for all.”
We are excited to reveal the winners of the third annual Femtech World Awards.
The winners were announced at a virtual event this afternoon attended by shortlisted companies, along with sponsors and judges.
The event welcomed guests from the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Thank you to all 174 entries, as well as the sponsors for making the event possible.
See you in 2027!
Femtech World Awards 2026 Winners
Winner:
Shortlisted:
IVI RMA x Juno Genetics
Natural Cycles
Winner:
Highly commended:
U-Ploid
Shortlisted:
Hello Inside
Winner:
WISE HF, led by Prof. Mary Ryder
Highly commended:
Cardiac College for Women
Shortlisted:
Hyvelle Ferguson-Davis
CognitiveCare
Winner:
Highly commended:
Youterus
Shortlisted:
ŌURA
Winner:
Shortlisted:
LeanShield by ParrotPal Group
Perigen
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Body Moody
Looop
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Owning Your Menopause
Womeno
Winner:
Shortlisted:
The Blue Box
Celbrea
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HealCycle
Mor
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HRC Fertility
Mira
Pregnant women’s expectations about postpartum sleep may predict sleep quality after birth, outweighing prior sleep and psychiatric history, a study suggests.
The findings suggest attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy could be a modifiable risk factor for postpartum sleep concerns.
They also indicate that, among women expecting the poorest sleep, higher postpartum anxiety may further worsen sleep quality.
Sammy Dhaliwal, lead author is clinical health psychologist and research fellow in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dhaliwal said: “Most pregnant women in our sample anticipated poor postpartum sleep before it occurred, and it was striking that those expectations predicted worse sleep outcomes even after accounting for factors such as prior sleep disorders, psychiatric history, and number of previous births.
“This suggests that attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy may represent a modifiable target for early intervention before postpartum sleep problems emerge.”
Sleep disturbance affects an estimated 60 to 80 per cent of postpartum women and is linked to a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Researchers said it is often regarded as an expected part of life after childbirth rather than a health issue that may be addressed earlier.
The study enrolled 432 pregnant women at about 24 weeks of gestation, meaning around 24 weeks into pregnancy.
Participants completed measures of their expectations about postpartum sleep, current sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and mood using validated depression and anxiety scales.
Assessments were repeated at six, 12 and 24 weeks postpartum.
A subset of 49 women also wore wrist actigraphy devices at six to eight weeks postpartum.
Actigraphy uses a wearable device, similar to a watch, to estimate sleep and wake patterns based on movement.
The results showed that 70 per cent of pregnant women, or 301 of 432 participants, expected poor sleep in the postpartum period.
Researchers found that predicted sleep disruption during pregnancy was a significant predictor of postpartum sleep concerns.
Among first-time pregnant women without prior health concerns, those who expected greater sleep disturbance had significantly more disrupted sleep after birth, measured by both actigraphy and self-report.
Among women who expected the worst sleep quality, higher postpartum anxiety significantly worsened both measured sleep and self-reported sleep, independent of anxiety levels during pregnancy.
Dhaliwal said the findings point to two possible areas for intervention: addressing sleep-related beliefs during pregnancy and treating postpartum anxiety.
Dhaliwal said: “Postpartum sleep disruption is often treated only after problems develop, but our findings suggest there may be an opportunity to intervene earlier during pregnancy.
“Addressing sleep-related beliefs and postpartum anxiety during prenatal and postpartum care may help improve sleep and emotional well-being in new mothers.”
A weight loss jab may improve fertility outcomes in women with PMOS, early findings from an ongoing clinical trial suggest.
The proof-of-concept analysis found that injectable semaglutide may offer reproductive benefits while also addressing obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
It is the first report to examine how injectable semaglutide may improve reproductive outcomes in women with PMOS while also addressing obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
The work forms part of the ongoing RESTORE clinical trial.
Melanie Cree, professor at CU Anschutz and first author of the report, said: “Women with PMOS frequently face a frustrating choice between treatments that target reproductive symptoms and those that address metabolic health.
“Our early findings suggest injectable semaglutide may have the potential to improve both, offering a more comprehensive approach to care.
“This medication is incredibly promising when someone responds with 10 per cent weight loss.”
The trial is examining whether semaglutide can restore ovulation and improve reproductive health in adolescents and adults with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, known as PMOS.
PMOS, formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS, is a hormone and metabolic condition linked to irregular periods, raised testosterone levels, infertility risk, obesity and increased cardiometabolic disease.
Cardiometabolic disease refers to conditions linked to the heart and metabolism, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Existing treatments, including metformin and hormonal contraceptives, often do not fully address reproductive and metabolic complications at the same time.
The analysis focused on participants aged 12 to 35 who lost at least 10 per cent of their body weight during treatment.
Researchers said reproductive improvements appeared earlier than expected, prompting them to report preliminary findings while the wider study continues.
Cree is also a paediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Endocrinologists are doctors who specialise in hormones and hormone-related conditions.
Cree said: “What makes this work particularly important is that it focuses specifically on women with PMOS receiving injectable semaglutide.
“Although GLP-1 medications have transformed obesity treatment, there remains a significant need for rigorous data examining how these therapies affect fertility and reproductive function in this population.”
The RESTORE study is evaluating semaglutide treatment in girls and women with PMOS and obesity.
Its broader aim is to determine whether weight loss and metabolic improvements can restore ovulation and improve reproductive outcomes.
Ovulation is the release of an egg from the ovary, a key part of the menstrual cycle and fertility.
The authors said the findings are from an early proof-of-concept analysis and that larger, longer-term studies will be needed to confirm whether the reproductive benefits last.
The findings suggest injectable semaglutide may become a treatment option for women with PMOS seeking improvements in both metabolic and reproductive health, if future studies confirm the results.
Menopause2 weeks agoPerimenopause misinformation ‘putting women at risk’
Hormonal health3 weeks agoNHS urged to update website following renaming of PCOS
News2 weeks agoWomen still being failed when they reach menopause, experts say
Insight4 weeks agoPCOS renamed after decade-long campaign to end ‘cyst’ misconception
Entrepreneur2 weeks agoWomen’s Health Innovation Summit opens submissions for 2026 Innovation Showcase
Insight1 week agoBritish women among angriest in Europe, health survey reveals
News2 weeks agoThree menopause innovators shortlisted for Femtech World Award
Fertility4 weeks agoAI could transform ovarian care through personalisation, study finds