Reflecting on the success around ORCHA’s Digital Healthy Schools, CEO and NIA Fellow, Liz Ashall-Payne, discusses how digital health apps can positively impact young people, with education delivered as part of the PHSE curriculum in schools.

We live in a digital world and none are more digitally savvy than our young people. Over 90% of under 16s in the UK own a mobile, and their relationship with this device is more than just a phone – it’s an extension of who they are.

Access to social media, the internet, gaming and the multitude of apps available via these devices is not always impacting behaviour in a positive way. However, we understand that young people regard their smartphones as a source for information and recommendations. We have a greater opportunity to positively impact and change behaviours by engaging with young people in a forum they understand and approve of.

Digital health apps are a powerful tool to help young people make better choices, but whilst there are many apps that work, there are also apps that can have a negative impact. So how do we take a route to engaging young people that we know works, and still safeguard them from potential risks?

ORCHA’s Mission

ORCHA is one of the innovations on the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA). It equips a growing number of NHS and local government organisations in supporting their populations to help prevent and assist in the management of health challenges through the uptake of digital health apps. The service ORCHA provides enables thousands of health care professionals to embrace the world of digital health apps and positively impact change within their communities, with the knowledge that every app recommended has been rigorously tested and reviewed.

As part of ORCHA’s mission to remove the barriers that currently inhibit the true potential of digital health care solutions, it has looked at how digital health apps can positively impact our young people and become part of the curriculum delivered in PHSE lessons.
Introducing Digital Healthy Schools

This unique approach called ‘Digital Healthy Schools’, is a library of online health apps and learning programmes that safeguard young people from using harmful apps, whilst helping them to learn how to integrate the use of good apps in their everyday life, to support their mental health and wellbeing.

Digital Healthy Schools also encourages pupils to learn more about health conditions whilst exploring the topic of app development and how apps are reviewed to ensure the information they are given is factual and safe.
To understand and ensure that this approach was effective, ORCHA has worked with schools across Lancashire, South Cumbria and Essex.

Pupils gained insight and information on the apps that are safe and effective, with discussions focussing on health conditions most common amongst these age groups, including nutrition, mental health and oral care.

The impact of Digital Healthy Schools being integrated into the curriculum has been hugely positive – and not just with the pupils. There was also a positive impact for family and friends, with an average of four apps being shared and recommended by pupils to their families.
During this test pilot, there was a 217% increase in the awareness of health apps with the pupils involved, and a 62% increase in the trust they had with health apps once they understand how to identify any potential risks. After the course there was a reduction of 28% of pupils trusting all apps.
Student feedback

Here’s what pupils and teachers at Witton Park Academy in Lancashire thought about Digital Healthy Schools.

One student explained: “Since the course I have been more active. I used to get a car to school but now I walk. There’s a fitness app that counts your steps, gets you more active, and gives you rewards for everything you do – it’s really getting me out of the house a lot more. I think everyone I know should use this app.”

Another pupil added: “Before I started using digital health apps, I didn’t really think it would help me in any way, but they really do track how you’re feeling, your state of mind, physical state – so it really does help.”

Other students told the ORCHA team that the digital apps that were discussed and recommended during the course have helped them make positive changes, from drinking more water to helping them sleep and become more alert in class.

Head Teacher, Steve Archer, said: “There are a number of students who say that they have actively made changes to their lifestyles, which is really positive as it seems young people are taking responsibility for their long-term health.”

For Witton Park Academy and other schools participating in the program, Digital Healthy Schools has achieved the positive impact that ORCHA had anticipated.

Steve Archer added: “To colleagues in other schools, I would say that we shouldn’t miss any opportunity to promote the wellbeing and health of our young people. They ultimately are our future.”

Empowering young people to better understand their health

A child with a mental health issue will take, on average, ten years to ask for help from experiencing the first symptom. When you consider statistics like this, education through schools and empowering young people to better understand their own health and the health of those around them through safe and trusted digital apps, can only positively impact change and the healthy development of the next generation.
For more information about ORCHA’s Digital Healthy Schools programme, email hello@orcha.co.uk

If your patients have been motivated by campaigns such as Stoptober and Stay Sober for October, but now need additional help to make or maintain changes to their lifestyle, an app can help.

Effective health apps put practical support, encouragement and tailored advice in the palm of your hand.  Convenient and always with you, they can provide the right intervention at the right time.  Here are three apps that we recommend for the 3-4 million trying to give up smoking, 20% wanting to cut-back on alcohol, and 2/3rd trying to diet right now.

On behalf of NHS and care organisations across the UK, ORCHA conducts more independent evaluations of health apps than anyone else.  This is a monthly round-up of some of the best mental health apps to know about.

TOP 3 APPS FOR MAKING CHANGES STICK

There are a wide range of apps that help embed changes into lifestyles.  Here are the three that achieve the highest scores in our evaluations covering effectiveness, safety, security and usability:

Quit genius: With a 36% success rate for long term quitting, it’s more effective than face to face therapy and going cold turkey.

Best-You: Set an alcohol consumption target and receive support and tracking on how you are performing against this.

Change4Life Smart recipes: Finder healthier alternative recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks, it includes step by step recipes and even creates your shopping list.

View 3 of ORCHA’s favourite apps for making changes stick HERE

NHS Digital has enlisted the help of a third-party app evaluator to speed up the number of clinically-approved tools available on the NHS Apps Library.

Orcha uses a combination of manual and automated assessment processes to scour mobile app marketplaces for applications that can be safely used within clinical settings.

The company conducts a ‘data scrape’ of app stores, such as those belonging for Google and Apple, and then feeds the information through an algorithm that separates legitimate applications from defunct or otherwise unsafe ones.

Legitimate apps can then be collated and reviewed by human assessors to ensure they are secure and fit for clinical use.

The NHS Apps Library currently includes 70 health apps spanning online services, lifestyle advice and support for a number of health conditions.

Orcha aims to help bring more verified service onto the market at a quicker pace.

To do this, apps will be assessed against the Digital Assessment Questions (DAQ) process. Developed by NHS Digital, the methodology evaluates apps against a set of criteria including effectiveness, regulatory approval, safety, privacy, security, usability, interoperability, technical stability and change management.

Speaking to Digital Health news, Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO or Orcha, said: “There are three main challenges with mhealth apps and the use and uptake. Those are awareness, access and the ultimate barrier being trust.

“Orcha’s mission is to activate people, patients and professionals to be able to search for, find and use the best health apps in their work and lives, as trust is the biggest barrier – reviewing and knowing which are the best is critical.”

Orcha is part of the NHS Accelerator Programme and already works with 20 CCGs and NHS trusts in England.

Its enlistment by NHS Digital comes after the health body said in February that it would partner with third party assessors to increase the variety apps featured on its apps library.

Hazel Jones, Programme Director at NHS Digital, said Orcha would “provide a route for regional health and social care providers to find trusted digital tools for their patients and citizens.”

The NHS Apps Library is due to go live nationwide at the tail-end of 2018, with a target of having 100 available in time for its launch.

The primary focus will be to offer apps to patients that support them in the management of common health conditions.

The NHS hopes to have its own app ready for download by December 2018.

A new mobile app comparison service is being unveiled by NHS Bradford district and Craven CCGs which will support people with their mental health and wellbeing.

Mental health issues will affect around 155,000 people in the Bradford district and Craven during their lifetime; with approximately 6,200 people needing specialist mental health support.

The CCGs have identified the opportunity for mobile health apps to support their digitally savvy population.

The latest initiative supports mental wellbeing; building it into care delivery, supporting early intervention and helping people to self-care and manage their conditions. This creates a new way to support self-care but doesn’t replace the more traditional ways of accessing mental health services.

To help people find safe apps that will be effective for their health condition, the CCGs have worked with ORCHA to build the free health app comparison site: bradfordandcraven.orcha.co.uk.

ORCHA tests and reviews thousands of apps so patients and professionals can make an informed decision about which ones to download.

The ORCHA app comparison site is not limited to mental health. People can search for other health and care apps to help;

· Stop smoking

· Manage diabetes

· Encourage walking

· Track alcohol and drug use

GPs and other healthcare professionals across the region are being given ORCHA Pro accounts, to enable them to recommend the best apps to support patients by sending them a text message.

Dr Taz Aldawoud, Bradford GP and Clinical Board member at NHS Bradford Districts CCG said:

“Orcha provides me with the confidence to recommend apps to my patients, specific to their needs, knowing it has been through a rigorous assurance process for data/cyber security, clinical effectiveness and taken account of user experience.”

“Being able to recommend an app that can help manage a condition, offer guidance about their lifestyle or provide a tool to improve their self-care is a new and invaluable way of providing that support.”

Jane Patrickson, Practice Nurse, at Westcliffe Medical Practice adds:

“Often, people just need simple, practical help and this app comparison site is easy to use for both patients and health professionals. Phones are a big part of people’s lives and, being able to get advice and practical support as part of their daily routine, can only help to improve their mental and physical wellbeing.”

To visit the comparison site, visit: bradfordandcraven.orcha.co.uk

Read the article here.

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