These robots can clean, exercise - and care for your elderly parents. Would you trust them to? Hidden away in a lab in north-west London three black metal robotic hands move eerily on an engineering work bench. We're not trying to build Terminator, jokes Rich Walker, director of Shadow Robot, the firm that made them. Bespectacled, with long hair and a beard and moustache, he seems more like a latter-day hippy than a tech whizz, and he is clearly proud as he shows me around his firm.

It looks faintly like one half of a small pair of very fluffy slippers. It squeaks and wriggles and nestles in the palm of my hand, black eyes hidden beneath a mop of silvery-white fur. It weighs about the same as a tin of soup. It doesn't need to be fed or walked and it doesn't use a litter tray; it's guaranteed not to leave "gifts" on my doorstep. Which is just as well, because Moflin is about to become my pet.

Doctors believe artificial intelligence is now saving lives after a major advancement in breast cancer screenings. AI is detecting early signs of the disease, in some cases years before doctors would find the cancer on a traditional scan. People suffering from dementia could live more independently thanks to a pair of AI-powered socks that can track everything from a patient's heart rate to movement. Called "SmartSocks," the AI-powered apparel was created in partnership between the University of Exeter and researchers at the start-up company Milbotix, according to SWNS. The socks can monitor a patient's heart rate, sweat levels and motion to prevent falls while also promoting independence for those with dementia. "I came up with the idea for SmartSocks while volunteering in a dementia care home," SmartSocks creator Zeke Steer, CEO of Milbotix, told SWNS.

Today, we have a mixture of young and older individuals, people with special needs, and people who can care for themselves. Over 1 billion people are estimated to be disabled; this figure corresponds to about 15% of the world's population, with 3.8% (approximately 190 million people) accounting for people aged 15 and up (Organization, 2011). The number of people with disabilities is upward due to the increase in chronic health conditions and many other things. These and other factors have made the need for proper care facilities urgent in today's society. Several care facilities are built to help people with disabilities live their everyday lives and not be left out of the community.

Often robots are seen as a means to an end to fulfill a logical objective task. Android robots, on the other hand, provide new possibilities to fulfill emotional tasks and could therefore be integrated into assistive scenarios. We explored this possibility by letting older adults and stakeholders have a conversation with an android robot capable of expressing emotion through facial expressions. The study was carried out with a wizard-of-oz approach and data collected with a mixed methods approach. We found that the participants were encouraged to speak more with the robot due to its smile. Simultaneously, many ethical questions were raised about transparency and manipulation. Our research can give valuable insight into the reaction of older adults to android robots that show emotions.

This Digital Health News industry roundup includes an Innovate UK Smart Award for a smart inhaler tracker, details on the digital transformation programme for Research Data Scotland and Cera's commitment to reduce hospitalisations with its digital healthcare approach. Customer analysis of a care home admin platform has revealed that it can save a significant number of hours in admin time for care homes. The CoolCare software focuses on making admin more efficient and more profitable. Its most recent analysis found that many of its customers were seeing results above pre-pandemic levels, including above-national increases in weekly fees, occupancy and private payer ratios. With increased occupancy, comes more admin.

ChatGPT has proven to be useful in all sorts of surprising situations, but could the AI chatbot really handle my holiday shopping list? The challenge came from my wife, Tracey, who enjoys finding flaws with AI and frequently teased our Google Nest and Apple HomePod mini smart speakers over obvious errors. The results this time, however, were impressive, even if I ChatGPT couldn't quite do my shopping unassisted. For the tech lover who has everything (that's me), ChatGPT took a few seconds before acknowledging that finding a unique gift could be a challenge. Nevertheless, it came up with several interesting ideas.

The healthcare industry and national healthcare systems across the world have experienced unprecedented pressure in recent years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many HealthTech start-ups started investing in healthcare technology in the early 2010s, but the crisis in 2020 inevitably accelerated digital transformation to allow medical professionals to keep seeing patients during the lockdowns. Recent research by Virgin Media Business, examining the use of information technology in healthcare in the UK, found that the benefits of digital transformation in operational areas are already showing. For example, AI is helping to streamline patient triage, enabling doctors to treat urgent cases more rapidly with lifesaving outcomes. But what will be the real impact of information technology in healthcare going forward?

Loneliness has become a real concern as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, and it's affecting young people and the elderly more than other age groups. But imagine a robot that could interpret sounds and other cues from the elderly that could make them feel less alone, or a program on a device that could help engage isolated young people. Researchers at the University of the Fraser Valley's Community Health and Social Innovation Hub (CHASI) are embarking on a project to learn more about how these kinds of intuitive solutions can help people who are susceptible to loneliness. "We just got the funding go ahead at the start of the school year," says Dr. Martha Dow, director of CHASI. The research will roll out in stages, and will include the use of a few robots who can pick up cues from the elderly, such as sound, to help with their care.

Three leading figures in developing digital services to help care homes better care for their residents believe artificial intelligence is on the way. The three, Daniel Casson, of Casson Consulting, Hooman Safaei, of Atlas e-Mar medicines management, and Michelle Corrigan, programme director of Better Security, Better Care, discussed the future when they took part in a digital roundtable podcast for Care Home Management magazine. Daniel recently presented a paper to the board of the CQC and highlighted work on "Assistive Intelligence" that a number of care organisations are already doing. Hooman Safaei gave an example of how this intelligence is already being used to cut the risks of falls among elderly care home residents. And Michelle Corrigan stressed how these new developments make it ever more important that homes should ensure they have rigorous security systems in place.