What impact has digital health had on students?
We spoke to Ms Claire Parkinson, Associate Assistant Headteacher at Ashton Community Science College, about how her school has found the Digital Healthy School programme, how the school helps pupils with mental health, and the impact of digital health on students.
Although it fits the PSHE curriculum and I understand others use it for this, we already cover similar, complementary topics in PSHE. Instead, Heads of Year and safeguarding officers use it to recommend apps when dealing with individual students, and all students are able to peruse the DHS App Library and ask to be sent a recommendation.
Some of the biggest problem areas are self-harming – mainly cutting – and also not eating. DHS has been really useful here as the App Library has mental health apps in these areas, that have been reviewed for their safety and quality.
Our main problem has been trying to meet the requirements of the PSHE curriculum as students only have 1 hour per week in KS3 and 20 hours over Key Stage 4. We’ve overcome some of these difficulties by showing students how to access and use safe health apps, so they are learning how to self-manage their wellbeing with trusted resources.
Students can bring their mobile phones into school but they must be turned off. If they go off in a lesson they are removed and sent to the office. The student can collect it at the end of the day but on the 3rd time their parent needs to collect it. We’re aware that many students have mobile phones, so we teach the students to use them responsibly and appropriately.
I have seven Year 10 students in a ‘mental health and Emotional well-being’ group who have trialled some of the apps and then blogged about it. This was a great way of getting the students to evaluate how health and care apps can help their mental and physical wellbeing. For example, a student using mental health app Headspace found that the app ‘is brilliant to use when you struggle to sleep due to stress or anxiety’ and ‘helped me to rest when it came to tests.’
Apps to support self-care for all during COVID-19
As the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continue to rise across the globe, governments are taking action to manage the impact of the outbreak – including asking people to self-isolate if showing symptoms.
With fewer patients attending general practices in person, and an increasing number of people choosing to self-isolate at home, digital health resources offer a practical tool that can be called upon for remote self-management.
There is a plethora of apps that can help with health-management, remote-monitoring and staying healthy. Apps not only help to keep pressure off the NHS in a time of high demand, but also allow patients to protect themselves and others from unnecessary risk. However, app stores are unregulated, and 85% of apps do not meet ORCHA’s quality threshold.
To support NHS efforts, below we have listed tested apps for you to be aware of, that support:
Each of the following apps meet ORCHA’s quality threshold for apps that are safe to use.
ORCHA helps the NHS to assess and build apps into practice. Please feel free to get in touch with us at hello@orcha.co.uk if you’d like any more information or advice on finding suitable apps to help you or your patients with self-managing health and care during this time of uncertainty.
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Experts think that coronavirus can survive on surfaces, possibly for days, so it’s important that your phone – at home, mobile or at work – is cleaned thoroughly and often. As modern phones tend to be water-resistant and sterilising wipes could damage the screen, you could clean your phone with regular soap and water and a single-use paper towel – but do check your phone is water-resistant before you try it. (1)
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*may include in-app purchases
With a wealth of useful apps on our App Library, the above is not an exhaustive list.
Sources:
(1) Coronavirus: Eleven of your most popular questions, answered
(2) GPs told to switch to digital consultations to combat Covid-19
(3) Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) standard operating procedure
Apply now!
NHS LPP (NHS London Procurement Partnership) have added 5 new condition area categories to their Dynamic Purchasing System:
Category 6 – Brain / Nerves
Category 7 – Cancer
Category 8 – Healthy Living
Category 9 – Joints / Bone / Muscle
Category 10 – Medicines and Clinical Reference
If you have an app that comes under any of these categories, you can apply to be part of the DPS here: https://www.lppsourcing.org/
In order to view the opportunity, you will need to select the ‘find opportunities’ option on the landing page once you have logged in to LPP Sourcing. From there select NHS London Procurement Partnership from the Organisations drop down. A list of current opportunities should load, from this list please select ‘Health and Social Care Apps DPS.’ When this page has loaded please select ‘Register interest in this opportunity’ and you will be taken to the opportunity where you can review all documentation and should you wish to begin the electronic questionnaire by clicking on the green icon at the bottom of the page. To reply to each question please click on the edit link within the Question Sets box.
The deadline for the first round of applications for these new categories is 30/3/20, and the existing categories will remain open for applications.
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The NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP) develops and manages collaborative procurement projects on behalf of its members, including NHS clinical commissioning groups and acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts.
Operating as a centre of commercial excellence, it delivers significant and sustainable cost and service improvements to the health economy relating not only to the procurement of digital technology, but also workforce, medicines optimisation and pharmacy, and estates and facilities management.
In order to provide NHS healthcare providers and the wider health and social care economy with the safe and efficient roll-out of mHealth applications, NHS LPP is introducing a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) that will enable a streamlined and compliant route to market.
As part of this opportunity, NHS LPP is inviting suppliers to submit apps for inclusion in the DPS.
All apps that apply will undergo an assessment by the Organisation for the Review of Health and Care Apps (ORCHA) and this will inform the selection decision made by NHS LPP. ORCHA’s review will look at 260 aspects of the app. Full details can be found at: Reviews and Accreditations
Serving a population with a wide range of health conditions, the programme is looking to include apps that address all conditions supported by the NHS and the health and social care sector. This includes mental health, women’s health, child health, diabetes, blood pressure and more. Apps may support the patient or the running of the organisation.
This programme aims to deliver cost effective, safe and effective apps into public sector services across the United Kingdom.
Top-scoring apps to help patients improve sleeping patterns
Sleep. It’s something we all need, but something that can often be compromised by the habits of modern life.
Experts have described sleep as a hidden health crisis, and studies consistently associate shortened sleep duration with weight gain, risk of myocardial infarction, hypertension, and diabetes, when compared to individuals with normal sleep.
With World Sleep Day falling on 13th March this year, we’d like to raise awareness of the issues that can arise from poor sleep, as well as indicating safe, digital solutions that can improve sleeping habits for yourselves and your patients.
On behalf of NHS organisations, ORCHA tests more apps than anyone else, looking at effectiveness, safety, security and usability. Below are three top scoring apps that we’ve evaluated that can help patients improve their sleeping patterns, leading to improved concentration, productivity and well-being. Click the images below to watch the videos:
Sleepio, developed by Big Health Ltd., is designed to improve a user’s long-term sleep pattern by utilising Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, rather than using tablets or other forms of medical interventions.
Sleeprate has been developed by Dr Anda Baharav, a sleep expert at Tel Aviv University, who discovered a connection between heart-rate, sleep and stress. The app was built to allow users to track their sleeping pattern, and it integrates with a number of common wearable devices.
Ambio Sleep Sounds, developed by verygoodapps.com, allows the user to create an atmosphere to aid the sleeping patterns of both themselves and others. Users can create atmospheres and mixes to fit with their individual needs, using either sounds created for Ambio, or sounds from the user’s own device.
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.