Bradford district has a young population and is set to be the youngest population in Europe by 2020. With a big digitally native population, growing-up with the internet and smart phones, the CCG identified the opportunity for mobile health apps to support individuals and professionals in the management of care. We spoke with Dr Taz Aldawoud, Bradford GP and Clinical Board Member at NHS Bradford Districts CCG, to understand why the CCG is turning to apps and what is important for them.

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 look at 180 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 180 important aspects, which together may help to set your app apart from the rest!

Tip #74: Improve your Presentation

Taken from measure 74 out of 180. Whilst reviewing apps we’re instantly drawn to the layout, not only how it appears on the surface but just how adaptable the features can be. During the initial set-up there are several things as an app developer you can do to aid to the process for those who may require additional support.

Taking poor sight as an example, you may wish to introduce different text sizes, font colours, and customised themes/backgrounds. Similarly, the implementation of voiceover functions, volume adjustments, subtitles, or integration of text to speech functionality, will be beneficial to individuals with hearing difficulties. #UnlockingThePowerOfDigitalHealth

Great example apps to be inspired by include:

Rachel Dunscombe is a member of Matt Hancock’s Healthtech Advisory Board, CEO of the NHS Digital Academy, and now global (non-US) leader and senior evangelist at KLAS, the collaborative of 170 healthcare organisations across 10 countries.

Here, Rachel and her colleague, Jim Ritchie, explain how they led the introduction of health apps at one of NHS England’s global digital exemplars (GDEs). Rachel was recently the director of digital at the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) NHS Group, which included Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. ORCHA advised Rachel on which apps perform well and fit the organisation’s objectives.

There’s been a huge rise in the number of apps that address women’s health. From period-tracking apps, pregnancy and nursing care, women’s sexual wellness to reproductive system health care, it’s the most searched for category on Google and is attracting the attention of Venture Capital investment.

We’ve reviewed more than 200 of the market’s most downloaded apps, looking at 160 criteria across three main components: Data Security (DS), Clinical Assurance (CA) and User Experience (UX), to spot the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and spot the stand-out apps.

To reveal the results, we’ve plotted their results in a 3D chart.

This reveals 3 main themes:

1. This is a market of low quality apps. More than 85% of the apps do not meet our quality threshold of 65% and have areas that need addressing, primarily around Clinical Assurance. Roughly one third of these scored less than 45%. This is particularly worrying given the high consumer demand and lack of regulation in app stores.

2. There are three stand-out apps. There are three outlying apps that scored well above our quality threshold. These include Natural Cycles – Birth Control, Baby Buddy, and Mum & Baby, which all scored well across all three dimensions (Circled in Black and Blue). In fact, Mum & Baby scored over 85%, which puts them in a select group of only 42 out of 4,213 apps that have ever done so.

3. Clinical assurance is not enough for a well-rounded app. The outlier app (Circled in Red) offers patients a real benefit whilst pregnant, and it deservedly achieves one of the highest scores for Clinical Assurance (45/50). However, it scores 10% lower than the top apps, as it scores low in Data Security and User Experience.

To explore our 3D chart, click here.

Or to read our pregnancy app reviews, follow this link.

For more information about some of the top scoring pregnancy apps on our App Library and how these meet user demands, read our blog post here.