NHS app will monitor daily step counts and heart rates using AI to get the nation back to work

The app will crunch the data on step counts and heart rates that many phones already capture to offer personalised health advice and suggest potential screenings and treatments.

The Budget funding will help pay for more modern computers, AI assistants to write up doctors’ notes and link up patient records faster.

Health secretary Victoria Atkins believes “a strong NHS helps a growing economy” and that measures such as this app will prove vital.

To that end, about £430million has been earmarked for the new app and new phone services.

Ms Atkins told The Times: “If you think of the data that we have on our phones, healthcare is absolutely going to be there encouraging people to find out what is a healthy lifestyle for them. How can they help quit smoking, talking therapies on the NHS App … these are all things that are going to be helping us in future.”

Evidence suggests the app could prove to be a wise investment.

A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine investigated the relationship between daily step count and cardiovascular disease and mortality. They also investigated whether prolonged sedentary behavior affects the ideal number of daily steps.

The study found that every extra step above 2,200 steps per day – up to around 10,000 – cut the risk of heart disease and early death, regardless of how much of the remaining time is spent sitting.

Walkers who logged 9,700 steps a day had the lowest risk of stroke and heart attack.

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Editor's take on the NHS app

It remains to be seen whether or not you can prod people into action but you cannot blame the government for trying.

NHS waiting times and spiralling costs are driving a record number of Britons into private healthcare and prevention is better than cure.

Artificial intelligence is clearly the direction of travel as the world pivots to personalised healthcare.

But is it a sticky-plaster solution? I think the government should be addressing the systemic problems within the NHS before rolling out whizzy initiatives.