Here at ORCHA, we’re continuously testing and questioning apps, on the lookout for apps which are safe, secure, easy to use and, most importantly, deliver real health outcomes. We now look at 226 elements, to help give health professionals and consumers an informed choice on which health apps to choose.

To help app developers produce the best apps, we’re sharing tips from across the 226 important aspects, which together may help to set your app apart from the rest!

Tip #3: How to personalise an app experience with notifications

Staying up to date with the latest app regulations and standards is essential for app developers.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies shows the value of digital health technologies in the UK health and care system by requiring apps to provide evidence of their effectiveness.

Due to the rapid development of digital health technologies, these standards require apps to demonstrate a high level of clinical effectiveness. According to Public Health England, this includes providing evidence that an app improves outcomes for patients and users, provides value for money, meets user needs, as well as that it is stable and simple to use, and that people actually use it.

There are a number of key points to consider when incorporating NICE’s Evidence Standards Framework into app development:

• How the framework defines risk: Within NICE’s Framework, digital health technologies can be classified by their potential risk. Risk to service users is defined as the chance of harm coming to the service user from using the digital health technology, including health and wellbeing consequences if there is not good quality care provided by the technology. Economic risk is defined as the chance of harm coming to the commissioning organisation from the digital health technology, including commissioning a technology that needs services to be redesigned.

• Functional classification for technologies with more than 1 function: The highest risk function of digital health technologies should be used to define its functional classification. For example, providing treatment would be the highest risk function in an app that provides information on and treatment of a condition.

• Health/fitness trackers and other similar apps: The framework applies to digital health technologies being considered for commissioning within the UK health and care system, including health/fitness trackers and other similar apps. In this sense, the framework can be applied to apps for use by the wider public, as well as those that cater to specific health and care needs.

Click here to read NICE’s full Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies.

Click here to access the NICE user guide.

According to Public Health England, approximately 1 in 4 adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and it is projected to affect more than 1.5 billion people around the world by 2025. High blood pressure can lead to stroke, coronary heart disease, vascular dementia and chronic kidney disease, and so places considerable strain on the NHS. As such, heart and blood vessels apps are becoming increasingly necessary in managing health issues such as high blood pressure.

The problem remains, however, that many blood pressure apps are untested, unregulated and potentially dangerous.

In order to address this issue, we’ve reviewed more than 120 of the market’s most downloaded heart and blood vessels apps, looking at 226 criteria across three main components: Data Security (DS), Clinical Assurance (CA) and User Experience (UX). Analysing this data allows us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and spot the stand-out apps.

To reveal the results of our analysis, we’ve plotted the apps’ data in a 3D chart (above).

This reveals 3 main themes:

1.       This is a market of low quality apps, with just over 75% of the Apps not meeting our quality threshold of 65% and having areas that need addressing. Roughly 25% of these scored less than 45%, which is slightly better than the figures from the Pregnancy Report last month.

2.       There were two stand out Apps (circled in black) that both achieved the high score of 88% – FibriCheck and Lincus Companion. Both the iOS and Android versions of Lincus Companion scored 88% which shows great consistencies across platforms. The FibriCheck iOS App scored 88% whereas the Android version scored just slightly lower at 86% due to a lower sub-score in Data Security.

3.      As mentioned in other Apps Rating Reports, Clinical Assurance is not enough for a well-rounded app. The two outlying Apps (circled in red) both scored well overall, but missed out on edging into the top group due to poorer scores in the Data Security and User Experience sections.
To explore our 3D chart, click here.
Or to read our heart/blood vessels app reviews, follow this link.

On behalf of NHS organisations, ORCHA tests more apps than anyone else, looking at effectiveness, safety, security and usability. Here are three top scoring apps that are designed to help people better manage their health in the summer months:

Asthma – Smart Peak Flow helps patients to detect and prepare for asthma attacks, providing accurate peak flow charts which can be shared with you.

Hay fever – MASK-air is a pocket log book for your allergy symptoms, providing user-friendly data analysis so you can predict, manage and avoid allergic aggravation.

Travel – Backpack Health lets patients collate their conditions, procedures, allergies and medications in one place and instantly translate into multiple languages.

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.