In an AI-first era, where AI is becoming an integral part of everything we do, its applications spanning across different sectors and facilitating various parts of our daily routines, healthcare should be no exception. In an ideal world, this is what healthcare should look like: a patient goes to an app to book an appointment, AI directs them to the doctor with the best expertise, knows which equipment is available, and which location makes most sense, and puts the appointment in their respective diaries. The complexity with healthcare is that this isn’t just a system, but three interconnected worlds that must work together seamlessly. Patients rightly want care when and where they need it. Clinicians want to ensure their expert resource is directed as impactfully and efficiently as possible. And medical assets, from MRI scanners to life-saving medications, must be available when and where required. This is where investing in technology becomes key. The good news is that the AI revolution in healthcare is already beginning, and the early results are encouraging. Some GP practices have cut waiting times by 73 percent using smart triaging systems, reducing waits from 11 to three days. AI can help tackle the dreaded ‘8am rush’ when phone lines jam with appointment requests. In the same study, GP practices using these systems reduced phone-based contacts from 88 percent to 18 percent and saw a 30 percent drop in missed appointments — potentially saving £350 million annually from reduced non-attendance. Through ServiceNow’s work with NHS Trusts, we’ve identified five areas where change can make an immediate difference, as outlined in ServiceNow’s NHS Digital Transformation white paper: * improving the staff experience; * joining up corporate services; * protecting against cyber threats; * streamlining patient journeys; and * harnessing AI. The reward for getting this right? We could see £35 billion in productivity savings by 2030. That’s money that could be reinvested directly into patient care. Better staff systems could save £750 million annually — not through cuts, but by giving critical NHS workers back the 29 million hours currently lost to bureaucracy. Right now, it takes up to 120 days to get a new NHS employee properly started. In some trusts we have cut that to 25-40 days. Imagine the impact if this was rolled out across the whole NHS. When you’re trying to grow the workforce from 1.5 to 2.4 million people by 2036, every day matters. Joining up corporate services could save another £1.6 billion each year. This is especially urgent given that Integrated Care Systems are facing combined deficits and have been told to slash running costs by 50 percent. The NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England talks about rebuilding the NHS in working-class communities; areas that currently get 10 percent less funding per person. Digital transformation isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about equity. When systems work properly, everyone benefits, but the biggest gains go to those who currently struggle most to access care. The problem is these parts barely speak to each other. The white paper reveals just how costly this disconnection has become: 13.5 million hours wasted annually due to inadequate IT, a 7.5 million case waiting list, and nearly £3 billion spent each year compensating for care failures. Behind every statistic is a person. Someone facing a delayed diagnosis, a cancelled operation or simply not receiving the care they deserve. This fragmentation isn’t just inefficient, it has a direct effect on patients and clinicians too. We’re spending £15.5 billion annually, 6.5 percent of the entire NHS budget, on corporate services that don’t talk to each other. Nurses are spending over a quarter of their time on paperwork instead of caring for patients. GP practices are drowning in 240 million calls annually from frustrated patients who can’t get through. We have a patchwork of systems where crucial information gets lost in translation.  When it takes 20 separate manual processes just to say goodbye to a leaving employee, you know there’s room for improvement. In addition to internal challenges, there’s the cyber threat affecting the NHS. Healthcare cyberattacks doubled between 2022 and 2023. A single ransomware attack forced over 10,000 patients to have their appointments cancelled at just two trusts. Without proper digital defenses and monitoring, we’re one attack away from regional healthcare paralysis. But here’s the thing, AI is only as good as the systems it connects to. That’s where we need to be honest about the infrastructure challenge. You can’t build tomorrow’s healthcare on yesterday’s technology. We need systems that talk to each other, share information securely and put the right information in the right hands at the right moment. The truth is, the NHS can’t do this transformation alone. The scale is too big, the timeline too tight and the technical challenges too complex. It’s about partnership — because the best outcomes happen when public sector insight combines with private sector innovation and speed. We need genuine partnerships focused on outcomes, not just products. At ServiceNow, we’ve seen what’s possible when this approach works: connected systems, freed-up time and better patient experiences. We’re at a crossroads, and the path we choose in the next two to three years will determine the NHS our children inherit. We can keep tinkering around the edges, managing decline through small improvements or we can be bold and build the digital foundation that healthcare needs. This isn’t a distant dream; it’s an immediate opportunity. Patients have waited long enough. NHS staff have endured enough frustration with systems that make their jobs harder, not easier. The cost of inaction isn’t just measured in pounds, it’s measured in lives. The technology exists, the knowledge is there and the legal framework is in place. What we need now is to act on what we already know works for this transformation to happen.

Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin was arrested in France on a hacking charge at the request of the United States. U.S. authorities believe Kasatkin negotiated payoffs for a ransomware ring that hacked around 900 companies and two federal government entities in the U.S., demanding money to end their attacks, according to a report from AFP. Kasatkin, who was arrested on June 21, denies the allegations. His lawyer, Frédéric Bélot, told POLITICO that Kasatkin is a “collateral victim of that crime” because he bought a second-hand computer with malware.  “He’s not a computer guy,” Bélot said. “He didn’t notice any strange behavior on the computer because he doesn’t know how computers work.” A French court denied Kasatkin bail on Wednesday, and he remains in jail awaiting formal extradition notification from U.S. authorities, according to Bélot. Kasatkin had traveled to France to visit Paris with his fiancée and was detained shortly after arriving at the airport. He played collegiate basketball briefly at Penn State, then four seasons for the Moscow-based MBA-MAI team. Bélot said Kasatkin’s physical condition has deteriorated in jail, which he argued is harming his athletic career. Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report. 

The European Union is set to admit that untangling from the dominance of U.S. tech companies is “unrealistic” as fears grow over the bloc’s dependence on American giants. A draft strategy seen by POLITICO ahead of its release this spring signals the EU has few fresh ideas to restore Europe as a serious player in global tech — even as responding to the new transatlantic reality becomes a top priority in Brussels. The return of United States President Donald Trump to the White House and his combative stance toward Europe has revived concerns about sovereignty over fundamental technologies, including social media and cloud services, as well as about the potential access of U.S. law enforcement to data processed by ubiquitous giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google. In the context of escalating trade tensions and mounting hybrid threats, the EU will soon release its International Digital Strategy for Europe. “Tech competitiveness is an economic and security imperative for all aspiring to durable wealth and stability,” says a draft version dated April 9. Yet when it comes to dominant players such as the U.S., “decoupling is unrealistic and cooperation will remain significant across the technological value chain,” the draft says. It cites China as well as Japan, South Korea and India as countries with which collaboration will also be essential. The pitch for strategic tech alliances with like-minded countries — to team up on research and generate greater business opportunities for the bloc’s companies — comes in stark contrast to growing calls for a move toward protectionism. The strategy is more defensive on China, stating that the EU will seek to maintain its “leadership in promoting secure and trusted 5G networks globally” — essentially a nod to excluding Chinese vendors such as Huawei. | Mukhriz Hazim/EFE via EPA For Europe, “business as usual is no option,” wrote Marietje Schaake earlier this year. Schaake, a former Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament who is a leading voice on tech, called on the bloc to “end its debilitating dependence on American tech groups and take concrete steps to shield itself from the growing dangers of this new, tech-fueled geopolitical landscape.” In Brussels, the idea of a “Eurostack” — an ambitious industrial plan to break free from U.S. tech dominance — is gaining steam, with key lawmakers throwing their weight behind the proposal. The draft strategy backs international engagement on critical technologies such as quantum and chips — as “the growing complexity of semiconductor supply chains and geopolitical uncertainty necessitate a tailored, country-specific approach.” The EU has been scrambling to fix, among other things, a risky reliance on China for low-tech chips. Cooperation could also include building prized artificial intelligence factories outside the bloc to help Europe grow its impact in the nascent technology, according to the draft. It should also include joined-up efforts on cybersecurity to crack down on ransomware. The strategy is more defensive on China, stating that the EU will seek to maintain its “leadership in promoting secure and trusted 5G networks globally” — essentially a nod to excluding Chinese vendors such as Huawei. Brussels and Washington have been joining forces for years to tame the technology giant’s global ambitions, using digital diplomacy tools to convince third countries to ditch equipment from the Shenzhen-based firm. The draft proposes extending that model to subsea cables, whose network map should be built “with like-minded countries.” The strategy is set to be presented June 4 according to the latest European Commission agenda.

The European Union is ramping up support, an early-warning system and a rapid response teams to help its hospitals fight off cyberattacks from hacker groups, it said Wednesday. The European Commission unveiled a new “action plan” on cybersecurity for hospitals and the health care sector, in response to a spate of devastating attacks that hit Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Finland and other countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic early 2020.   “This is one of our sectors where we can see that [there are] massive cyber attacks, and we have to support [so] they are better prepared,” European Commission tech and security czar Henna Virkkunen, who presented the plan Wednesday, told POLITICO ahead of the launch. National governments reported 309 significant cybersecurity incidents affecting the health care sector in 2023 — more than in any other critical sector, the Commission said. The plan is a key pledge of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — a medical doctor herself — to be completed during the first 100 days of her second term.  The plan proposes setting up a European Cybersecurity Support Center for hospitals and the health care sector at the EU’s cybersecurity agency ENISA. That support center will provide tools and services including an early warning system, testing and assessing hospitals’ cybersecurity standards, sharing information about vulnerabilities that hackers are exploiting and guidance on how to respond to incidents.  ENISA will get extra funding for this, an EU official granted anonimity to discuss details of the plan told reporters in Brussels. But exactly how much funding — like many other elements of the plan — is yet to be decided.  Asked whether the plan will involve new funding, Virkkunen said that “always more funding would be welcome,” adding this is something that will be discussed in upcoming consultations with EU countries. The Commission also plans to set up a rapid response service specifically for the health sector, to be organized via the EU Cybersecurity Reserve, an emergency response mechanism that’s part of another EU cyber law, the Cyber Solidarity Act.  The plan also introduces “cybersecurity vouchers,” which will allow EU countries to give cash to small hospitals and health care providers for cyber resilience. These will operate similarly to so-called innovation vouchers previously used by the EU, but no specific amount has been set aside yet, the EU official said. The plan also suggested that EU governments request that health care entities tell authorities when they have paid or plan to pay a ransom to resolve a ransomware attack. Such an attack entails that hackers block computer systems and demand a ransom payment in exchange of handing back data. The Commission also plans to make decryption tools, which allow organizations to get their data back without paying the ransom, more readily available. The EU executive will now consult on the action plan, most of which is expected to take place later this year. Giedrė Peseckyte contributed reporting.