To be named as part of the BIMA 100 is a prestigious accolade.
To be named as part of the BIMA 100 is a prestigious accolade. The BIMA 100 celebrates the most influential, pioneering and changemaking people in the UK’s digital industry and ORCHA is delighted to announce that its CEO, Liz Ashall-Payne, has been selected by an independent panel of industry experts to join this year’s 100.
Liz was named in the Tech Trailblazers category following a year in which she has continued to increase access to and awareness of digital health for people, professionals and populations.
The announcement was made at one of digital’s biggest nights of the year, held at London’s OXO Tower on 8th May.
“Tonight is about celebrating the people who are the leading the industry right now,” explained BIMA Co-President Nat Gross. “It’s about the people we look up to, the visionary leaders and CEOs that can make our industry a better place. The people with the imagination, technical skill and creativity to take us forward; and the new talent that can keep our sector strong.
“When you look at the people in this year’s 100 – people like Liz Ashall-Payne – I think we’ve really outdone ourselves.”
An exciting new digital programme for schools combining health apps with the national curriculum is being rolled out across Blackburn with Darwen after being successfully trialled in schools last year.
ORCHA’s Clinical Implementation Manager, Lisa Simmons, at the recent launch of Digital Healthy Schools for Blackburn with Darwen.
An exciting new digital programme for schools combining health apps with the national curriculum is being rolled out across Blackburn with Darwen after being successfully trialled in schools last year.
Blackburn with Darwen Council’s ‘Digital Healthy Schools’ programme will help secondary schools in the borough creatively engage young people in managing their own health, through the use of mobile apps.
Through assemblies and hands-on workshops, pupils will be encouraged to learn more about health conditions whilst exploring the topic of app development and app reviews in PHSE or science lessons.
With no regulation in Apple or Google app stores, pupils will also being given advice on what to look for in an app around safety, data security and clinical effectiveness. And they will have access to an app comparison site, featuring apps evaluated against 160 criteria and have been identified to be suitable for children.
The programme is devised and run by ORCHA, a leading health app evaluation and advisor organisation, home to the world’s biggest health app comparison site, and part of NHS England’s National Innovation Accelerator Programme.
Some schools had the opportunity to test the programme last year, including Witton Park Academy and St Thomas’s Centre in Blackburn.
Steve Archer, a teacher at Witton Park Academy, said:
“Using apps is second nature to young people, they embraced the programme immediately. It created conversation and enabled technology’s positive role to shine through. Pupils have actively used apps to adopt changes to their lifestyles, particularly around diet and exercise – although one pupil even found an app to better treat his mum’s eczema! It’s great to see them taking responsibility for their own health.”
Councillor Brian Taylor, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “Apps are a safe way to learn more about your own health and, by increasing children’s knowledge in this area, they will be able to safely engage with these valuable tools.”
Visit the ORCHA website for Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria to learn more about how it’s helping people to find the best and safest health and care apps.
Watch a video about the Witton Park Academy Digital Healthy Schools scheme below:
According to OCD UK, there are an estimated three quarters of a million people suffering from severe, debilitating and life-impacting Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in the UK alone. With referral waiting times for NHS mental health services, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), often being months long, health apps that can help sufferers manage their OCD whilst waiting for treatment are more necessary than ever. In support of OCD Week of Action, a campaign by OCD Action which runs from Monday 18th February to Sunday 24th February 2019, ORCHA would like to raise awareness of how digital health apps can help people affected by OCD.
ORCHA has reviewed over three hundred mental health apps, including those specifically catering to OCD, which can be searched for using our health app finder tool. These apps are assessed according to the ORCHA Review process, which analyses an app’s compliance with current standards, regulations and good practice, with apps that achieve a higher ORCHA score being the more compliant with these standards. In providing a consistent framework by which to assess health apps, the ORCHA Review process not only increases knowledge and awareness of the apps available, but also facilitates trust in digital health for both patients and healthcare professionals.
For sufferers of OCD, symptoms commonly include frequent intrusive and obsessive thoughts, in combination with repetitive compulsions. Although performing compulsions can bring some relief to the anxiety caused by the distressing, obsessive thoughts, such relief is temporary, with the obsessions frequently resurfacing in a debilitating manner. OCD can manifest itself in any number of guises, from excessive washing and cleaning, to rearranging objects until their position feels ‘just right’, worrying that a fire will start because of not having ‘properly’ checked that appliances are switched off, repeating words or movements, hoarding, fears that something terrible may happen to a loved one, or even thoughts of being the cause of harm (despite this being the last thing the person with OCD would ever want to do), and much, much more. There are specific types of OCD depending on the kind of obsessions and compulsions that occur, but sufferers can experience any combination of OCD symptoms, meaning that it is impossible to categorise all individual cases under restrictive headings.
Unwanted, obsessive thoughts, leading to compulsive actions, can take hours out of a sufferer’s day. Someone with a more extreme case of OCD may feel that it is impossible to switch off their intrusive thoughts, rendering them exhausted and sometimes despairing. Often, the sufferer is aware of the irrational nature of their obsessions and compulsions, but this awareness does not make their anxiety lessen. Instead, a person with OCD may feel shame and embarrassment at being unable to control their OCD, which can result in them trying to hide any outwardly visible compulsions. They might even avoid certain situations or specific activities in anticipation of their OCD becoming aggravated. This vicious cycle of fear and avoidance means that, according to OCD UK, there is often a delay of ten to fifteen years between someone first experiencing symptoms of OCD, and actually seeking help.
Imagine, then, that someone whose life has been impacted by OCD since childhood, has managed to overcome their personal shame and apprehension surrounding their OCD enough to finally go to their GP for help and diagnosis, only to discover that there is a six month plus waiting list for CBT. Perhaps not wishing to go down the route of medication, how, then, could this person find a way of coping with their OCD throughout the long wait for treatment?
Enter: health apps. The NOCD app is one of the multiple OCD apps that have been reviewed by ORCHA. Having achieved an ORCHA score of 61%, NOCD offers guidance and self-therapy options for people suffering with OCD. ORCHA’s review process allows people to make informed decisions about their own health by scoring health apps according to data privacy, clinical assurance and user experience, making it easy for users and health professionals to determine the effectiveness and trustworthiness of specific apps. Without people even needing to download the app, ORCHA’s Review increases the accessibility and clarity of information about different aspects of NOCD.
In the absence of ORCHA’s review, an OCD sufferer may refrain from downloading any health apps due to uncertainty about their effectiveness. In this sense, ORCHA enables those people waiting for CBT to access help in the interim, and moving into the future as they continue to manage their OCD. NOCD provides information on a variety of OCD-related topics; has an in-app community in which people can share their advice and experiences; and offers the opportunity to create a personal treatment plan, with exercises based around Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Whilst this app is not recommended as a replacement treatment to seeing a therapist and accessing CBT through the NHS, it can be effective in helping OCD sufferers track their obsessions, compulsions and thought patterns. Not only can this be useful for people trying to understand their OCD better in preparation for eventual therapy, it can also help people generate their own methods of coping with OCD, at a pace which suits the individual. Further, NOCD’s in-app community creates a support network at the user’s fingertips. Finding and connecting with other people who understand OCD can contribute to recovery by helping the sufferer to see that they are not alone in their struggle.
OCD can control people’s lives. Through using digital health apps, those affected can start taking back some of that control. ORCHA’s Solution helps to empower patients in this way by increasing awareness, access and trust of health apps. Whether you suffer from OCD yourself, know someone who does, or are a healthcare professional looking to improve the wellbeing of your patients, ORCHA’s searchable health app library provides a trusted way of discovering the best OCD apps amongst hundreds of other health apps. Health apps can’t promise a cure-all solution for OCD or other health problems, but they can definitely be a great help.
Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP)
Led by NHS England, Public Health England and Diabetes UK, Reed Momenta runs the NHS DPP in regions across the UK including West Lancashire. ‘Healthier You’ is a 40-week support programme which helps people make changes to their life that can prevent Diabetes. Once referred by their GP because they have high blood sugar levels, people are given a Health and Wellbeing Coach. They then go on a journey through 18 group sessions which cover nutrition, exercise and behaviour change, and lead to a healthier lifestyle and lower blood sugar levels.
Commissioned by West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group, the ‘Healthier You’ programme has been established in West Lancashire, where more than 5,000 people are believed to have Diabetes; higher than the national average level. To help overcome often life-long habits and embed new long-term behaviour change amongst participants, the team identified that health apps could strengthen the course. Mindful that any change to the programme must be based on evidence, it partnered with ORCHA who, as experts in the field, would help the team identify and select apps that fitted the programme and were safe, clinically assured and easy to use.
Alongside advice and worksheets, participants are introduced to apps that will help them apply the recommended changes. So now, during the session on being more active, they have fun comparing each other’s results on Accupedo Pedometer, a simple free app that counts your steps. Or, after learning the importance of knowing their sugar intake, they are encouraged to use the Change4Life Food Scanner, to know exactly how much sugar is in what they buy from the supermarket.
The introduction of apps has been successful; uptake has been high, and coaches report that apps are helping to better embed practical changes into participants’ lives. Later in the course, participants also increasingly reference information from an app rather than asking a coach, which is a good sign for self-management skills which are important for long-lasting results. Participants get their blood sugar levels tested at the start, half way through and at the end of the course. These measures show that the course is working and participants are preventing Diabetes.
Commenting on the introduction of apps, Rachel Gaskell, Health and Wellbeing Coach at Jon Scott, Health & Wellbeing Manager, Reed Momenta, adds to this: “The programme achieves results. Participants change their behaviours and across Lancashire lose on average 3.1kg, and in West Lancashire this figure is 5.4kg. Adding ORCHA to the programme further empowers and informs participants, providing practical support and engaging personalised information. This helps to make changes stick and become part of everyday routine.”
Reed Momenta, said: “Participants who use apps as part of the course seem to understand and engage with the subject better. They also have a clearer picture of how they are performing against any goal. For example, when we discuss the importance of keeping a food diary, those with the Calorie Counter app by Fat Secret, not only had amazing insight at their fingertips, but regularly monitored and adjusted their nutrition habits.”
Mike Maguire, Chief Officer of West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group, continued “To tackle the escalation in Diabetes, people need to introduce lifestyle changes that are achievable and sustainable. Adding ORCHA to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme helps us to better deliver this. By including engaging tools, that people can access when they need them, we’ve increased the programme’s ability to deliver long term behaviour change that will ultimately save lives.”
Diabetes rates in West Lancashire – 7%
https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/lancashire-insight/health-and-care/long-term-conditions/Diabetes/
The national average is 6.6 per cent.
Read more at: http://www.westlancashireccg.nhs.uk/new-Diabetes-programme-launches-in-west-lancashire-52781/
Read about the author, Andy Jeans (Head of Implementations), on LinkedIn