ORCHA today launches a health app formulary to help healthcare professionals and consumers know which health apps they can trust.
Health apps have grown enormously in popularity, even more so during the COVID-19 Pandemic. As recently reported (1), since early March, more than 500 health apps contain coronavirus-related keywords in their description.
People are taking advice from these apps, often using them to share sensitive information. Yet, in a time of fake reviews, scams and personal data breaches, not all health apps can be trusted.
The Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA) today launches a health app formulary to help healthcare professionals and consumers know which health apps they can trust.
As a free to use resource, the site includes reviews of health apps across a range of health conditions relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, including reviews of COVID-19 apps launched to date.
ORCHA is also offering free professional accounts to all NHS staff for the next three months. The ORCHA Pro Account lets healthcare professionals find and recommend health apps to patients via text or email. This avoids any errors in remembering or downloading the wrong app, and gives the professional a record of who has been recommended an app.
ORCHA measures the health of health apps. It verifies the accuracy, security, and risks associated with their use. Any app offering special pricing or approaches at this time, if it is particularly useful in supporting the COVID-19 response, or if there are any implementation approaches to support the COVID-19 challenge, is given a specific ‘COVID-19’ label in the formulary.
The COVID-19 Health App Formulary can be found at: https://covid19.orcha.co.uk/
Health Professionals can sign up to their free ORCHA Pro Account here, too.
Commenting on the move, Brian Donnelly, Chief Executive, CECOPS CIC said: “In the current COVID-19 crisis, finding the most effective health apps that meet trusted standards is so important. People need assurance when selecting apps. CECOPS fully supports the timely initiative by ORCHA to deliver a site where technologies that uphold standards can be found. This is a tremendous piece of work, well done!”
Andy Bleaden, Director Ecosystems and Membership ECHAlliance, adds: “We are really delighted to see the launch of his site is a vital source where the digital health community can find trusted information on health apps. ECHAlliance regard this as an excellent hub for health and social care professionals.”
Big Health co-founder and Professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford, Professor Colin Espie, added: “In these difficult times, digital therapeutics can help to alleviate the overburdened NHS system, and importantly they can do so with immediate effect and at huge scale. This is because therapies such as Sleepio are fully-automated and highly engaging, and deliver cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to anyone who needs it – today. Importantly, Sleepio is what we call ‘evidence-based’. This means that it has been the subject of an extensive clinical trials programme. In fact, 12 Randomised Controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that Sleepio reduces symptoms of poor sleep by up to 76 percent. We are proud to be included in the curated health apps within the ORCHA COVID-19 App Library. This is a wonderful initiative, and we look forward to helping users easily access safe, assured solutions that actually work and make a difference in their lives.”
Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive, TSA (TEC Services Association), also commented: “Technology can transform the lives of vulnerable people during the COVID-19 pandemic. In these unprecedented times there has never been a more important moment for us, as professionals and the public, to engage with digital solutions, to keep us all safe and well and achieve our health and wellbeing outcomes.”
Learn more about apps for remote physiotherapy that have scored well in ORCHA’s Review.
To minimise risks of exposing patients to COVID-19, around 70,000 physiotherapists in the UK alone1 are being asked to adopt remote consultations. Already growing in popularity, physiotherapy apps are now a vital tool for physiotherapists to improve patient outcomes.
Apps can be used effectively to help in assessment, treatment compliance, monitoring of symptoms, or self-management of conditions, improving a patient’s physical and mental health.
On behalf of NHS organisations, ORCHA assesses more apps than anyone else, looking at clinical assurance, safety, data privacy and user experience. Below are two top scoring apps that are designed to help with remote physiotherapy.
Click below to watch our videos about each app:
GPEP Physiotherapy Exercises has been designed with the help of NHS GPs and physiotherapists with the aim of bringing users access to self-help advice from professionals, enabling users with back, muscle and joint conditions to start their recovery early.
AfterTrauma provides information on both the physical and emotional impacts of serious injury, and has been co-designed with serious injury survivors, carers, doctors and therapists. The app is set up to help users rebuild their lives.
Source:
1 Number of physiotherapists in the UK
Due to our continual re-review process, all app scores are subject to change. As such, we’d always encourage you to view our app reviews on our App Library, as this reflects Live data and app updates which are continuously changing. Our re-review process ensures that the most up-to-date information for the latest version of an app can be accessed via our App Library.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has recently launched an App Library to enable its 59,000 members to take a leadership role in incorporating digital technology in their practice.
In our latest video, hear Karen Middleton, Chief Executive Offier, CSP, and Euan McComiskie, UK Health Informatics Lead and Professional Advisor for Northern Ireland at CSP, discuss how apps can help as part of assessment, treatment compliance, monitoring symptoms, and allowing people to self-manage.
“We’re working with ORCHA to try and enable our physios to be able to confidently recommend worthwhile apps to their service users, and for our members to use for their own benefit.” – Euan McComiskie
The CSP’s Physiotherapy App Library can be found at csp.org.uk/applibrary
Dr Tom Micklewright discusses his views on three apps for remote asthma management that have scored well in ORCHA’s Review.
The question of how patients can best look after their health, especially if they’re in a high-risk category, and whether patients should be increasing their medication just in case, are all concerns GPs have to deal with on a daily basis.
Below, we share how health apps can help those with respiratory conditions. Dr Tom Micklewright shares how he has been using the COVID-19 App Formulary, and gives his personal, practical view on three apps which can help patients better manage their asthma at home.
With 61.4% of the asthma apps we’ve reviewed scoring below ORCHA’s quality threshold, it’s important to understand which apps are clinically assured and safe to use.
In the video below, hear Dr Tom Micklewright discuss the importance of empowering patients to self-manage their health, and the role of digital health.
Dr Micklewright demonstrates the myAsthma app, shares his views, and explores the medication diary, forecasters for mapping out triggers, and personalised action plans which can all be accessed in the app, giving patients more control over their asthma:
Click here to view ORCHA’s review of the my mhealth suite of apps on our dedicated COVID-19 App Library.
Dr Micklewright explains why the Zephyr Guide app can be great to signpost patients to for their annual asthma reviews, especially when clinicians can’t actually see the patient. The app trains people to use their inhalers properly through a series of simple animations:
Click here to access ORCHA’s review of Zephyr Guide on our COVID-19 App Library.
For his insight into another top-scoring asthma app, Dr Micklewright demonstrates how the Smart Peak Flow app uses a smaller peak flow device to record peak flow in the app, via Bluetooth, or by connecting to the phone jack of a mobile device. The app allows users to monitor their peak flow over time, and gives recommendations based on their peak flow data:
Click here to read ORCHA’s review of Smart Peak Flow on the COVID-19 App Library.
Where can patients and health & care workers find asthma apps to help during the COVID-19 crisis? Dr Micklewright explains how ORCHA’s free COVID-19 App Library provides a helpful resource for accessing key apps during the pandemic:
We’re delighted to have already seen great interest in our dedicated COVID-19 App Library, and hope it continues to help professionals, patients and service users alike!
Visit the site and discover apps to help you, your patients, or your service users, at covid19.orcha.co.uk
To get your free three month ORCHA Pro Account: visit the site, click the ‘Sign Up’ button in the top right-hand corner, and use the upgrade code BEATCOVID19
If you already have an ORCHA Pro Account linked to your organisation’s Health & Care App Library, you will also be able to see the apps featured in the COVID-19 Formulary. The relevant apps will feature a clear ‘COVID-19’ banner in your Library.