Liz Ashall-Payne, Founding CEO

ORCHA’s research expertise

ORCHA is the world’s leading reviewer of digital health products – but our in-house experts also monitor industry trends and commission their own research:

• Our data analysts regularly gauge trends in health app usage by health and care professionals and citizens.
• Our team of public health researchers, led by Dr Simon Leigh, routinely undertake peer-reviewed academic research – both independently and in partnership with academics worldwide – into the clinical and economic performance of digital health products.

The facts below may be useful background, but if there’s something you want to know and it isn’t listed, just ask us.

All our new research is also published on our news feed.

The digital health market

• There are currently 311,000 health apps available worldwide. 261,500 are available in the US and 227,500 in the UK (September 2022)
• The global digital health market will be worth £320bn by 2024 and the UK market is expected to be worth £23.98bn by 2025. Global Market Insights
• 85% of all apps downloaded have less than 5,000 downloads in total.
• Only 84 individual apps have been downloaded more than 10m times.

How consumers are using apps

• We annually commission an independent consumer survey. Our 2022 research found that:
  • Eighty-three per cent of people surveyed who have used a health app found it actively helped to improve their health and wellbeing.
  • Fifty-five per cent had had an app recommended by a health or care professional and the most active recommenders had been GPs and pharmacists (in 11% and 10% of cases respectively).
  • Those aged from 18 to 44 would choose digital health to support a mental health condition over and above prescription medication, such as an antidepressant.

How healthcare professionals are using apps

• Our research team monitored the number of searches for health apps by healthcare professionals during the pandemic (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/10/e053891)
  • Searches for digital health products increased by 343% following the first lockdown.
  • Searches for MSK and physiotherapy products increased by 2036% and those for allergy and fitness/diet increased by 1253% and 1051% respectively.
  • 92% of medical condition areas saw an increase in searches.

Facts about ORCHA

• ORCHA works in 12 countries (US, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Ireland and Israel) across 4 continents (Europe, Asia, North America and Australia)
• ORCHA supplies digital health libraries in 70% of NHS regions.
• We have conducted 20,042 assessments of digital health products (September 22), more than anyone else in the world.
• 75% of health apps fail to pass our review process. This means they cannot be included on our digital health libraries.

Call or text Kate McCann on +44 (0)7528 796400 or email kate.mccann@orchahealth.com

Feature image: Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom

Statement from Liz Ashall-Payne, founding CEO, ORCHA

“This report is long awaited and welcome. The pandemic left us with an over-burdened NHS, with unprecedented backlogs to tackle. But it also reminded us that necessity is the mother of invention. Digital health has already been implemented across many pockets of the NHS to help support patients at home and to ease the pressure on frontline staff. Use of our ORCHA app libraries increased by 342% in the first months of the pandemic.*

“There are many signs the country is more than ready for the widespread use of digital health. Two thirds of respondents in our recent consumer report were open to trying Digital Health Apps. Eighty-three per cent of those who used health apps found they actively helped improve their health.**

“But we have to sound a warning note. A scattergun approach to the implementation of digital health, with dozens of different products and systems introduced by different NHS providers, without a sound infrastructure to support it and minus knowledgeable frontline staff, will cost the NHS more and cause enormous confusion.

“At the very heart of this, there’s also a very significant patient safety issue, highlighted in the past few days by problems with period tracker apps in the US potentially sharing private data. Our ORCHA review team has, to date, carried out 19,000 health app reviews. Consistently, we find that around 80% of apps fail to meet the standards we require to add these products to our app libraries. They either fall down on clinical standards or are unsafe with patient data.

“For digital health to be safe and sustainable, we need to view digital in exactly the same was as we view medicines. We need rock-solid and universal standards in place and we need doctors to be able to prescribe products exactly as they prescribe medication, with a product recall system in place.

“There’s also an urgent need to have all frontline staff trained in how, when and why to use digital health. Earlier this year we launched the ORCHA digital health academy, a free and CPD-accredited resource available for the entire NHS workforce, available on the Health Education England NHS learning hub.”

*https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/10/e053891

**Digital Health in the UK: National attitudes and behaviour research, June 2022