Despite recent policy recommendations advocating the use of health apps in routine clinical practice, they are rarely recommended to patients by healthcare professionals in practice.

To find out why, ORCHA conducted its first study of healthcare professionals’ views regarding digital health.

Conducting in-depth interviews followed by a quantitative survey with healthcare professionals, ORCHA discovered what is most important, of some importance and of limited influence to healthcare professionals when considering recommending a health app to patients.

We are absolutely delighted that this research has been published in The Lancet Digital Health. Our study into the role of healthcare providers in mHealth adoption aligns with ORCHA’s role as an industry leader in ensuring that digital health is accessible and able to be trusted by healthcare providers.

The results of our study suggest that healthcare providers were most concerned about digital health technologies having a stamp of approval from either the MHRA, NHS, or another accrediting body. The second most significant factor for healthcare professionals when considering recommending health apps to patients was that there are published studies to demonstrate their safety or effectiveness.

Based on this evidence, ORCHA’s study suggests that the clinical assurance, safety and effectiveness of health apps are some of the most significant concerns for healthcare providers with regards to recommending digital health technologies to patients.

In this sense, ORCHA’s work becomes even more important, as we provide digital health solutions to address the concerns of healthcare providers. ORCHA’s mission to improve digital health outcomes by facilitating trust in health apps is achieved through our robust, 160-point App Review process, which scores apps based on their Data Privacy, Clinical Assurance and User Experience.

To examine the full statistics of ORCHA’s study and to further understand how digital health organisations such as ORCHA have a substantial role in increasing mHealth adoption, please read the full article, published in The Lancet Digital Health: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(19)30025-1/fulltext

If you are a healthcare professional, we’d love for you to participate in the next stage of our research about the most important factors for healthcare providers when considering offering digital health technologies to patients. Simply fill in this survey before 7th June – it only takes five minutes!

Our team of experts continually monitor, assess and ask questions, so they can give consumers, professionals and health and care bodies across the world accurate, impartial and up to date advice on finding the best apps. Here we highlight the most significant market developments and news from over the past month:

– Despite recent policy recommendations advocating the use of health apps in routine clinical practice, they’re still rarely recommended by health-care providers in practice. So ORCHA conducted the first study to understand why and explore the factors most important amongst healthcare professionals. The Lancet Digital Health published our initial findings here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(19)30025-1/fulltext?fbclid=IwAR2tVBBEg2ciWESThqbDthhnAUyzFDlh8makq1xRuYY0-wmCW8OVtdmpFv8

– The use of innovative technologies, such as apps and wearables, can help ‘patient power’ by giving patients control over monitoring their health conditions. This parallels ORCHA’s mission to increase access to and trust in digital health apps, so as to improve patient care: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48228818

– Digital Health reports on how ORCHA’s recent collaboration with Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has helped the Trust’s mental health therapists to understand which apps are the safest and most clinically effective for patients: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/05/mobile-health-apps-news-brief-2/

– Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are contributing to the rise in Consumer-driven Healthcare (CDH): https://hitconsultant.net/2019/05/28/4-areas-in-consumer-driven-healthcare-ripe-for-innovation/#.XO0P54hKhPY

Men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women yet 3 out of 4 suicides are by men. Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust understands the impact living with a condition or receiving treatment can have on a person’s emotions. It provides specialist clinical health psychologist services as part of its condition-specific teams.

To advance how this support is delivered before, during and after discharge, the Trust has adopted the use of safe and tested apps. Hear Dr Jessica Dean, Renal Clinical Psychologist, explain the dangers of using untested health apps in mental health:

Although more men use fitness apps than women, adoption is mainly by younger men, and men of all ages fall behind women in the use of nutrition or self-care apps.

With Men’s Health Week running from 10^th June ‘till Father’s Day, this month we’re focusing on health apps that are effective in tackling issues most prevalent amongst men.  From keeping a close watch on heart disease, encouraging a healthy diet, to encouraging timely GP visits.

One man in five dies before he is old enough to retire. Health apps enable men to better understand and take control of their health, helping to change this number.

On behalf of NHS organisations, ORCHA tests more apps than anyone else, looking at effectiveness, safety, security and usability.  Here are three top scoring apps that are designed to help tackle three issues more common amongst men:

• Heart Disease – Fibricheck uses the phone’s camera and flash to measure the user’s heart rate, helping to detect irregular heartbeats.

• Weight management – Nutracheck calorie counter allows users to quickly and easily track and report on consumption of calories, carbs, sugar, protein, fat, saturated fat and salt.

• Symptom checker – Your.MD uses advanced AI to feedback on possible conditions, giving the nudge to visit a doctor.

Watch our video below to find out more about ORCHA’s favourite 3 apps for men’s health:

Due to our continual re-review process, all app scores are subject to change. As such, we’d always encourage you to view our app reviews on our App Library, as this reflects Live data and app updates which are continuously changing. Our re-review process ensures that the most up-to-date information for the latest version of an app can be accessed via our App Library.