We’re delighted to be featured in the Department for International Trade’s (DIT) ‘The First 100’ Digital Health Playbook among some of the UK’s most impressive digital health innovators.
The campaign, launched by the DIT, articulates the exportable strengths that the UK has in healthtech. It showcases those that stand out for being tried and tested, and, most importantly, making a difference across one of the most complex health systems in the world, during its most challenging time.
The picture of talent and innovation in the UK is a fast-evolving one, with new pioneers emerging daily. Through ‘The First 100 Playbook’, the DIT hopes to reach out to those who are not just leaders in their field but are willing to find new frontiers to make an impact.
The DIT has British Innovators who are ready to go global and connect with the ever-expanding worldwide opportunity. Healthcare UK, part of the Department for International Trade, has invested significant effort, alongside partners, to identify, engage with and showcase some of the UK’s leading talent.
Digital Health is rightly seen as the answer to many of the challenges facing global healthcare. The role of digital technology in realizing the dream of accessible, affordable, and sustainable care has grown across the entire range of health economies in not only serving current needs, but in building the basis for the healthcare of the future: personalized, digital by default, and truly patient-centric.
The innovations in the Playbook can offer support to healthcare in a variety of ways, from reporting data and using AI, pre-assessment, diagnostics, and systems management, to managing staff at scale and collaborating. There are solutions to support people at home with self-care apps and remote monitoring and consultation. And see how future tech may transform healthcare.
Learn more about the services ORCHA offers national health bodies across the world here.
Mental health and stress management are one of the biggest challenges to the future of global healthcare, with mounting evidence that mental health problems have become even more prevalent since the pandemic. During lockdown, services turned to digital, switching from in-person help to a range of digital services, such as patient-to-clinician platforms, digitally-enabled treatments, mental health and wellbeing apps, chatbots, and social support networks. But it can be difficult to establish which digital technologies for mental health are suitable and safe to use.
In this Digimed TV Broadcast, ORCHA’s Business Development Director, George Kowalski, discusses how digital technologies can address some of these needs and challenges without placing additional burdens on public health services and/or other health stakeholders. George also looks at the quality of health and care apps for mental health and explains how ORCHA’s services provide quality assurance to health and care organizations and professionals. The Digimed TV guests also share their experiences of a variety of solutions, ranging from mobile phone applications and wearables to immersive experiences linked to biometric feedback.
Listen to George’s video presentation here from 45:31.
Good Thinking is London’s Digital Mental Wellbeing Service, backed by the London Mayor’s Office, Public Health England, London Councils, NHS, and Thrive LDN. It was developed in response to repeated studies that demonstrated that mental health difficulties were common but accessing support was complicated.
Intensive user testing with over 450 Londoners with mental health charity Mind revealed that people do not always fit into categories for, or want, traditional treatment options, and committing to a course of therapy is not always an option. However, the research also revealed that people are willing to use online wellbeing resources about the four most common mental health concerns: anxiety, sleep, stress, and low mood. There is also a desire for trusted interventions that are accessible 24/7, private, secure, online, and where possible free. And people want to avoid stigma by being able to access services in private and at any time.
These insights led to a model of service for Good Thinking that is agile, responsive, and hugely flexible. The elements of the service include using digital marketing to help reach people, a comprehensive self-assessment, clear urgent support information, support in finding offline support, a quiz to find personalized support, and relatable helpful content.
Alongside these elements, it was also identified the program should feature NHS-approved, class-leading Apps that offer choice and a range of ways of improving mental health and well-being, that are based on the best evidence, are safe and secure, and are free for users to use. But the team realized that trust in digital health may be an obstacle to progress and that trust and confidence must be earned.
To address the trust concerns, the products would need to be completely free, without any in-app purchases and they would need to be fully assessed for compliance with the latest regulations for safety.
To help identify the best-in-class apps, the team developed a Standard Operating Procedure, to ensure the program would meet the health priorities, reduce inequalities, and ensure people are offered the best options safely, with an expectation that use will improve health and well-being.
To ensure the program was best informed, Good Thinking chose to work with the Organization for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA). Experts in health app review and accreditation, ORCHA worked closely with Good Thinking to advise on each step of the process.
It was decided that rather than offer a long list of options, the site would instead provide one best app for each health priority, accompanied by a clear usage explanation. This would enable people to quickly spot the most relevant apps for them.
Good Thinking identified a short list of the best apps for each health priority. ORCHA then identified which standards each app had to meet and conducted the relevant assessments of every app. This enabled Good Thinking to select the final class-leading apps.
Examples of apps selected that provide support to a distinct user group include:
As standards evolve and apps regularly update, unlike traditional approaches, ORCHA’s unique platform conducts ongoing monitoring, automatically identifying when an app requires a new review and conducting this. This enabled the program to put in place an important governance step of identifying when an app needs to be decommissioned and removed from the platform.
Alongside the other support services, the Good Thinking site includes a best-in-class app for a range of situations for adults and children, all of which when tested, exceed quality thresholds.
Since its launch in November 2017, Good Thinking has attracted 500,000 users or one in twelve of the region’s adult population. They’ve visited the service over 650,000 times, 24 hours a day, every day of the week, including national holidays.
Alongside all digital health services, it saw an increase in use during COVID, especially during the first lockdown period. Since in-person services started to open up, visitor numbers have dipped, but the team expects to see an increase in the use of digital services over the next five years, much as we might expect in the retail sector.
Over the past year, there has been a great deal of work to ensure Good Thinking can complement other care pathways and services, and assist with demand management. For example, the apps that Good Thinking hosts can be prescribed directly by GPs.