MIND, Dutch Foundation for Mental Health, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA), the leading specialist in the assessment of health apps. The aim of the agreement is to provide an App signposting platform, providing an overview through the Dutch ‘jungle’ of apps and other e-health applications that promote mental health.

MIND wants to ensure people are better informed about the quality and functionality of apps so they can make a choice from the entire range more easily.

The App Signposting site is being developed by MIND in co-production with GGZ Netherlands and its members.

More and more apps are coming onto the Dutch market to support mental health. For people, it is often quite a search to find a well-fitting app among all those apps. People find it important that there is good information about apps that may be suitable for them. That information is now limited and fragmented. As someone from the MIND supporters commented: “I am now using an app and I am sticking to it, because I have no idea what I would otherwise have to choose; I don’t know what it all means and I don’t want to just download something on the gamble.”

The realisation of the App Signposting Site is done within the framework of the VIPP-GGZ program and is financed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The intention is that a platform will be delivered at the end of this year with standardised quality assessments of apps for mental health care. ORCHA will deliver the underlying technology. In collaboration with GGZ Netherlands, MIND coordinates the appraisal of the apps and will include both the perspective of clients and their loved ones and the perspective of professionals.

Commenting on the agreement, Liz Ashall-Payne, ORCHA, CEO, said:

“We know that mental health apps can make a real difference, but with no regulations, finding safe and effective ones can be extremely hard for patients and practitioners. We’re delighted to be working with MIND in the Netherlands, to put steps in place to safeguard people and help them find the best apps.”

Are you attending the HETT Show this year on 1^st and 2^nd October 2019? HETT, Healthcare Excellence Through Technology, is the UK’s leading healthcare technology and digital health event, held at the ExCeL in London. This year, we are excited to announce that ORCHA will be hosting an App Zone as a feature at HETT!

REGISTER TO ATTEND HETT HERE.

The App Zone is a digital health showcase comprising 12 app developers with top scoring apps on ORCHA’s extensive App Library. Their apps will be demonstrated across individual Pods in the App Zone, and all developers will be presenting on each day of the HETT Show on ORCHA’s own mini-stage. Come along to our digital health apps showcase at stand C76 and #MeetTheDevelopers!

Which app developers are in ORCHA’s App Zone?

Our carefully selected 12 developers will be able to explain the functions and features of their App and answer any questions you might have about how it can help to improve the quality of digital health for patients, professionals, communities and consumers. Representatives from ORCHA will include Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO and Co-Founder, and Tim Andrews, COO and Co-Founder.

Take a look below for the full line-up of app developers to be showcased in our App Zone:

• Ampersand Health is a social impact company focused on digital therapeutics. Their long-term inflammatory condition management platform was co-developed with leading clinicians at Barts and Kings College Hospital and comprises self-management apps for patients; and management and analytics portal that allows hospital teams to view data and manage their patients. Featuring: MyIBD Care.
• SkinVision drives early detection of skin cancer by transforming your smartphone into a medical device that is as accurate as a dermatologist. Use the camera on your smartphone to capture a skin spot and submit it for analysis by SkinVision’s CE certified machine learning algorithm, which will provide a risk assessment within 30 seconds.
• FibriCheck targets the prevention of possibly life-threatening strokes by enabling early detection of heart rhythm disorders, with a main focus on atrial fibrillation. The medically certified application (CE and FDA) uses the clinically validated PPG technology, making the detection of heart rhythm disorders possible with just a smartphone or smartwatch.
• Sleepio is a digital solution based on CBT for insomnia. It has the world’s largest evidence base for any digital therapeutic: 8 published RCTs, n~7000 participants. Sleepio reduces insomnia, and improves mental health, with one study showing it reduced incidence of depression by 50%, which was maintained at 1 year.
• Mush is the friendliest app for mums. It empowers women to build local friendships, share advice and find support from an understanding community. Mush creates opportunities for mums to socialise, bridging the gap between appointments with healthcare professionals, and provides support for those who don’t have family networks nearby.
• Brain in Hand’s on-demand digital support framework enables individuals and their supporters to co-produce strategies based on their own strengths and goals. These are accessible any time from a smartphone, plus remote support when required. Organisations use BiH’s system to extend support, improving user outcomes and reducing strain on resources.
• eQuoo, the award-winning, evidence-based Emotional Fitness Game, combines the excitement and joy of gaming and the expertise of mental health professionals to provide a new form of mobile prevention and therapy for young adults 18-28-years old.
• stem4 (Clear Fear/Calm Harm) is a teenage mental health charity aimed at stemming commonly occurring mental health problems at an early stage through the delivery of mental health education in schools and through their portfolio of clinician developed, co-produced mental health apps. Featuring: Calm Harm (self-harm urge management) and Clear Fear (anxiety management).
• Smoke Free is the world’s most popular stop smoking app with over 4 million downloads and an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 from greater than 140k ratings. The app incorporates the best available evidence on how to quit smoking and includes over 30 different tried-and-tested behaviour change techniques.
• Intellin simplifies the management of diabetes and identifies the risk of developing complications. Intellin gives personalised predictions on users’ highest risk areas and provides tips on how to prevent these complications.
• my mhealth are the leading supplier of self-management and rehabilitation apps and platforms in the UK for patients with COPD, Asthma, Diabetes and Heart Disease. These patient apps interact with a condition specific clinical interface, enabling efficient, population level remote models of care.
• Stroke Active aims to transform the recovery of Stroke Patients across the world through an online application and iOS mobile app that can be used by Patients, Carers and Practitioners to manage the vital first few weeks of recovery following a stroke.

Whether you are interested in Apps for specific health and care conditions, want to know more about the development of health apps, or want to know more about ORCHA’s App Review process and how you could work with us, ORCHA’s HETT 2019 App Zone promises to be a digital health showcase like no other!

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 now look at 226 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 226 important aspects, which together may help to set your app apart from the rest!

Tip #3: How to personalise an app experience with notifications

Staying up to date with the latest app regulations and standards is essential for app developers.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies shows the value of digital health technologies in the UK health and care system by requiring apps to provide evidence of their effectiveness.

Due to the rapid development of digital health technologies, these standards require apps to demonstrate a high level of clinical effectiveness. According to Public Health England, this includes providing evidence that an app improves outcomes for patients and users, provides value for money, meets user needs, as well as that it is stable and simple to use, and that people actually use it.

There are a number of key points to consider when incorporating NICE’s Evidence Standards Framework into app development:

• How the framework defines risk: Within NICE’s Framework, digital health technologies can be classified by their potential risk. Risk to service users is defined as the chance of harm coming to the service user from using the digital health technology, including health and wellbeing consequences if there is not good quality care provided by the technology. Economic risk is defined as the chance of harm coming to the commissioning organisation from the digital health technology, including commissioning a technology that needs services to be redesigned.

• Functional classification for technologies with more than 1 function: The highest risk function of digital health technologies should be used to define its functional classification. For example, providing treatment would be the highest risk function in an app that provides information on and treatment of a condition.

• Health/fitness trackers and other similar apps: The framework applies to digital health technologies being considered for commissioning within the UK health and care system, including health/fitness trackers and other similar apps. In this sense, the framework can be applied to apps for use by the wider public, as well as those that cater to specific health and care needs.

Click here to read NICE’s full Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies, and here to access their user guide.