News from ORCHA

Our team of experts continually monitor, assess and ask questions, so they can give consumers, professionals and health and care bodies across the world accurate, impartial and up to date advice on finding the best apps. Here we highlight the most significant market developments and news from over the past month:

– Despite recent policy recommendations advocating the use of health apps in routine clinical practice, they’re still rarely recommended by health-care providers in practice. So ORCHA conducted the first study to understand why and explore the factors most important amongst healthcare professionals. The Lancet Digital Health published our initial findings here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(19)30025-1/fulltext?fbclid=IwAR2tVBBEg2ciWESThqbDthhnAUyzFDlh8makq1xRuYY0-wmCW8OVtdmpFv8

– The use of innovative technologies, such as apps and wearables, can help ‘patient power’ by giving patients control over monitoring their health conditions. This parallels ORCHA’s mission to increase access to and trust in digital health apps, so as to improve patient care: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48228818

– Digital Health reports on how ORCHA’s recent collaboration with Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has helped the Trust’s mental health therapists to understand which apps are the safest and most clinically effective for patients: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/05/mobile-health-apps-news-brief-2/

– Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are contributing to the rise in Consumer-driven Healthcare (CDH): https://hitconsultant.net/2019/05/28/4-areas-in-consumer-driven-healthcare-ripe-for-innovation/#.XO0P54hKhPY