ORCHA CEO features in UK-Japan Symposium on Data-Driven Health

We are currently in an era of opportunity. A huge amount of investment is stimulating development in data science, promising new means to optimise health and quality of life at the person and population level. Empowered with this opportunity, and the surge in globalisation that new technologies have fuelled, researchers, clinicians and policymakers must consider: how can we improve health not just in one country, but globally?

Earlier this year, ORCHA CEO Liz Ashall-Payne spoke at the UK-Japan Symposium on Data-Driven Health. Over three sessions, this event considered data strategies to predict risk, prevent and manage disease in individuals and populations, and examine the assistive technologies that may arise from these. The symposium brought together representatives from academia, industry and the healthcare sector in the UK and Japan to explore this challenge in the context of:

• The health data landscape and resources in the UK and Japan
• Health data for public health
• Health data for clinical decision making

Click here to read the full write-up of the key messages to emerge from the conference, featuring Liz Ashall-Payne’s insights.

Liz explained that the biggest blockers to increased use and integration of health apps are awareness, access, trust and governance issues. To tackle these, ORCHA have built a review and accreditation engine that scrutinises health apps across areas including data privacy, security, clinical assurance and user experience in collaboration with experts. ORCHA then distributes this review information via health app libraries in the UK and abroad, which help users to find and access trustworthy apps that are tailored to their individual needs. ORCHA have worked closely with organisations, including NICE, to produce their efficacy framework, and are working with NHS Digital on projects including the NHS App, signposting how integral health applications may become to how we access healthcare in the future.