An increasing number of schools are using digital health as a proactive measure to support their students’ mental and physical health.
More young people have been experiencing mental health challenges during lockdown, those receiving NHS treatment before the crisis are receiving reduced or no support at all, and providing remote pastoral care and PSHE is difficult.
Now, as staff plan for the return to school, whilst continuing remote learning too, an increasing number of schools are using digital health as a proactive measure to support their students’ mental and physical health.
Whether as remote pastoral care, part of the return to school process, or general self care for teachers as well as students during school closure, your Digital Healthy Schools App Library is a safe, quick and effective resource to support your students and staff struggling with mental or physical health challenges.
Here, we look at the top five health issues pupils are most searching for help with, and highlight a top-scoring app that can help in each of these areas.
Take steps now to encourage your students to use your App Library and access apps to help their specific needs.
Almost one hundred schools across the UK have now activated their Digital Healthy Schools account. These App Libraries can be used to provide remote access to quality assured apps so that students and their families can learn about and manage their mental and physical health.
Over the past three months, the top five most searched for health topics across the Digital Healthy Schools App Libraries have been: sleep, stress, stopping smoking, healthy living, and anxiety.
This search data indicates that looking after students’ mental health and helping them stay healthy has never been more important.
Below, we suggest a top-scoring app for each of these five health issues:
To search for, recommend or download these apps and many more, please go to your local DHS App Library.
*may include in-app purchases
We share our data insights from the first quarter on since COVID-19 came to the UK
Over the past three months, there has been an explosion in digital health adoption as people look for remote ways to manage their health and wellbeing. National Government COVID-19 strategies, local authorities and consumers, have all turned to health apps, both as a potential means of slowing the spread of the virus, and a method of allowing people to self-manage their own health.
Our App Libraries are used by services serving a population of 20 million, thereby acting as a barometer for how the UK is engaging with digital health.
This week, we share our data insights from the first quarter on since COVID-19 came to the UK.1 How fast have digital health adoption rates escalated? What are the most popular searches? And which health and care apps have been downloaded the most?
More consumers have been using health and care apps. In just one week, we saw an increase of 182.5% in app downloads from our App Libraries, and a 6,500% increase in app recommendations from health and care professionals. But what condition areas are people searching for on app libraries?
We can see from the data across our App Libraries that the most popular search terms over the past quarter, in addition to ‘COVID’, have included: mental health, physiotherapy, MSK, fitness, anxiety, activity, neurology, rehabilitation, diabetes, respiratory, and sleep.
Whereas ‘COVID’ was initially the most searched term at the beginning of the outbreak, people are now searching for specific condition areas. This indicates a shift in focus to actively self-managing health and wellbeing, as well as a desire for knowledge about particular health areas.
Our word cloud below provides a visualisation of the most popular searches over the past three months:
The below list gives an insight into the top five most downloaded apps across our App Libraries over the past three months:
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References:
1) British Foreign Policy Group: COVID-19 Timeline
How have app developers been bypassing app store security?
Given the challenges the world is facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, app developers have been quick to create digital solutions to help people manage their health and, potentially, slow the spread of COVID-19. But they have also been equally fast in spotting a loophole in app store security, in order to get their apps to market.
Apple’s App Store requires a COVID-19 app to have been developed in partnership with the NHS, or requires documentation from the NHS showing that they have authorised the distribution of the app’s content. The Google Play Store has also put similar requirements in place for any app claiming to be COVID-19 related.
To avoid these restrictions, app developers have spotted that, by entering their app under the category of ‘COVO 19’, they can bypass app store regulations needed in order to appear under ‘COVID 19’.
But should we be concerned by this move? As an independent assessor of health and care apps, ORCHA has reviewed 17 of the COVID-19 apps available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Cumulatively, these apps have been downloaded over 1,580,000 times on Google Play alone.
The outcome of our reviews has revealed that, yes, we should be concerned about the quality of COVID-19 apps, as they are of very mixed quality. It also revealed that the steps taken by app stores have failed, not just because developers found a work around, but because one NHS app didn’t list under COVID-19, and the fact that those apps that do not meet the stores’ criteria actually achieve a higher ORCHA Score than the apps that do.
Almost 60% of all COVID-19 apps reviewed scored below ORCHA’s quality threshold. Whilst some apps performed particularly well, many apps hovered just above or below the cut-off score, and some apps achieved dangerously low scores. The few apps that managed to enter app stores using the ‘COVO 19’ loophole achieved an average score of 71.6%. This is around ten percentage points higher than the average score achieved by all COVID-19 apps reviewed by ORCHA.
Looking at why apps achieved these scores, the strongest results were seen in User Experience, with the average score in this review domain being 76%. This is good to see, as, for an app to be used by all, it must be easy to use.
Data Privacy is where the biggest weaknesses lay. The average score for COVID-19 apps in this review domain is 55%. This is of concern and requires action, as, if we are asking people to use an app, they also need to have a very clear understanding of how secure their data is, so that they can make an informed choice as to when to use the app and what data to share.
It is to be expected that, due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, Clinical Assurance scores might not be as high as non-COVID apps that we have reviewed; the average score here was 57%.
The challenge remains, therefore, of helping consumers to understand which apps are potentially unsafe to use, and ensuring that consumers are armed with the full facts about the strengths and weakness of an app before it is downloaded.
Dr Tom Micklewright discusses his views on three apps for managing heart health that have scored well in ORCHA’s Review.
This week, we look at some of the best apps for heart health. After using the COVID-19 App Formulary, Dr Tom Micklewright gives another personal, practical view on three apps which can help patients better manage heart health at home.
ORCHA has reviewed a total of 221 apps for heart and stroke. This is a category of low-scoring apps, with almost 80% scoring below our quality threshold. This is worrying, considering that these apps have been downloaded 1,077,586,960 times on Google Play, and includes apps from well-known brands.
It illustrates why our independent app reviews should be consulted to check which apps are safe to use, before downloading or recommending to a patient.
In the video below, hear Dr Tom Micklewright introduce his independent reviews of heart health apps that can help during the COVID-19 crisis, and how professionals can recommend these solutions to patients via the ORCHA App Library.
Click below to watch the video:
Dr Micklewright looks at the way in which the Kardia app and device provides medical-grade single lead ECG tracing, meaning it can be used to detect atrial fibrillation (AF). Patients can take their own readings, which are recorded and can be tracked in the app:
Click here to access ORCHA’s review of Kardia on our COVID-19 App Library.
Dr Micklewright demonstrates the FibriCheck app, exploring how it can be used to detect AF, how it compares to a patch-based ECG trace, and what the clinician dashboard feature looks like:
Click here to view ORCHA’s review of FibriCheck on our dedicated COVID-19 App Library.
For his insight into another top-scoring app that can help with managing heart health at home, Dr Micklewright demonstrates how Fitbit goes beyond simply tracking steps and sleep, to also track heart rate. The Fitbit watch and app mean that tracking heart rate can become a routine part of the patient’s day:
Click here to read ORCHA’s review of Fitbit on the COVID-19 App Library.
Dr Micklewright summarises which apps can have a role in identifying heart arrhythmias, and which help with more general lifestyle changes. All apps mentioned can be accessed on ORCHA’s COVID-19 App Library.