The coming months exacerbate conditions and bring additional pressures to health services.

But apps can offer patients a simple, quick, and free way to improve their self-management and choose the right services, reducing winter pressures.

Take steps now and using health apps may reduce your demands.

Recommend apps to patients in practice, or better still, push out app recommendations to the most vulnerable.

TAKE A LOOK AT ORCHA’S TOP 3 HEALTH APPS FOR CHOOSING WELL THIS WINTER

Zephyr Guide: Help patients with COPD and asthma improve their inhaler’s effectiveness with the Zephyr guide.

Evergreen Life: Help keep your weekly flu stats down & get your patients and staff to book their flu jab with Evergreen flu jab booker.

Medelinked: Help patients keep a complete health record before an appointment, or access a symptom checker before making the appointment with Medelinked.

REDUCE A&E WAIT TIMES BY 11% WITH WAITLESS

With only 85% of patients currently seen within the government’s target of 4 hours (the Independent), reducing waiting times for those in need of emergency services has the potential to improve patient care significantly. Already used across eleven regions, WaitLess helps patients search across walk-in centers, minor injury units, and Emergency departments, to see which units have the shortest wait times for the treatment they need.

We spoke with the former General Manager within NHS A&E services and Waitless’ CEO, to find out why it was created, how it works, and the results were seen:

Reflecting on the success around ORCHA’s Digital Healthy Schools, CEO and NIA Fellow, Liz Ashall-Payne, discusses how digital health apps can positively impact young people, with education delivered as part of the PHSE curriculum in schools.

We live in a digital world and none are more digitally savvy than our young people. Over 90% of under 16s in the UK own a mobile, and their relationship with this device is more than just a phone – it’s an extension of who they are.

Access to social media, the internet, gaming, and the multitude of apps available via these devices is not always positively impacting behavior. However, we understand that young people regard their smartphones as a source of information and recommendations. We have a greater opportunity to positively impact and change behaviors by engaging with young people in a forum they understand and approve of.

Digital health apps are a powerful tool to help young people make better choices, but whilst many apps work, some apps can have a negative impact. So how do we take a route to engaging young people that we know works, and still safeguard them from potential risks?

ORCHA’s Mission

ORCHA is one of the innovations on the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA). It equips a growing number of NHS and local government organizations in supporting their populations to help prevent and assist in the management of health challenges through the uptake of digital health apps. The service ORCHA provides enables thousands of healthcare professionals to embrace the world of digital health apps and positively impact change within their communities, with the knowledge that every app recommended has been rigorously tested and reviewed.

As part of ORCHA’s mission to remove the barriers that currently inhibit the true potential of digital healthcare solutions, it has looked at how digital health apps can positively impact our young people and become part of the curriculum delivered in PHSE lessons.

Introducing Digital Healthy Schools

This unique approach called ‘Digital Healthy Schools’, is a library of online health apps and learning programs that safeguard young people from using harmful apps, whilst helping them to learn how to integrate the use of good apps in their everyday life, to support their mental health and wellbeing.

Digital Healthy Schools also encourages pupils to learn more about health conditions whilst exploring the topic of app development and how apps are reviewed to ensure the information they are given is factual and safe.

To understand and ensure that this approach was effective, ORCHA has worked with schools across Lancashire, South Cumbria, and Essex.

Pupils gained insight and information on the apps that are safe and effective, with discussions focussing on health conditions most common amongst these age groups, including nutrition, mental health, and oral care.

The impact of Digital Healthy Schools being integrated into the curriculum has been hugely positive – and not just with the pupils. There was also a positive impact on family and friends, with an average of four apps being shared and recommended by pupils to their families.

During this test pilot, there was a 217% increase in the awareness of health apps with the pupils involved and a 62% increase in the trust they had with health apps once they understand how to identify any potential risks. After the course, there was a reduction of 28% of pupils trusting all apps.

Student feedback

Here’s what pupils and teachers at Witton Park Academy in Lancashire thought about Digital Healthy Schools.

One student explained: “Since the course I have been more active. I used to get a car to school but now I walk. There’s a fitness app that counts your steps, gets you more active, and gives you rewards for everything you do – it’s really getting me out of the house a lot more. I think everyone I know should use this app.”

Another pupil added: “Before I started using digital health apps, I didn’t really think it would help me in any way, but they really do track how you’re feeling, your state of mind, physical state – so it really does help.”

Other students told the ORCHA team that the digital apps that were discussed and recommended during the course have helped them make positive changes, from drinking more water to helping them sleep and become more alert in class.

Head Teacher, Steve Archer, said: “There are a number of students who say that they have actively made changes to their lifestyles, which is really positive as it seems young people are taking responsibility for their long-term health.”

For Witton Park Academy and other schools participating in the program, Digital Healthy Schools has achieved the positive impact that ORCHA had anticipated.

Steve Archer added: “To colleagues in other schools, I would say that we shouldn’t miss any opportunity to promote the wellbeing and health of our young people. They ultimately are our future.”

Empowering young people to better understand their health

A child with a mental health issue will take, on average, ten years to ask for help after experiencing the first symptom. When you consider statistics like this, education through schools and empowering young people to better understand their health and the health of those around them through safe and trusted digital apps, can only positively impact change and the healthy development of the next generation.

For more information about ORCHA’s Digital Healthy Schools program, email hello@orchahealth.com.

If your patients have been motivated by campaigns such as Stoptober and Stay Sober for October, but now need additional help to make or maintain changes to their lifestyle, an app can help.

Effective health apps put practical support, encouragement, and tailored advice in the palm of your hand. Convenient and always with you, they can provide the right intervention at the right time. Here are three apps that we recommend for the 3-4 million trying to give up smoking, 20% wanting to cut back on alcohol, and 2/3rd trying to diet right now.

On behalf of NHS and care organizations across the UK, ORCHA conducts more independent evaluations of health apps than anyone else. This is a monthly round-up of some of the best mental health apps to know about.

TOP 3 APPS FOR MAKING CHANGES STICK

There is a wide range of apps that help embed changes into lifestyles. Here are the three that achieve the highest scores in our evaluations covering effectiveness, safety, security, and usability:

Quit Genius: With a 36% success rate for long-term quitting, it’s more effective than face-to-face therapy and going cold turkey.

Best-You: Set an alcohol consumption target and receive support and tracking on how you are performing against this.

Change4Life Smart recipes: Finder healthier alternative recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks, it includes step-by-step recipes and even creates your shopping list.

View 3 of ORCHA’s favorite apps for making changes stick HERE

NHS Digital has enlisted the help of a third-party app evaluator to speed up the number of clinically-approved tools available on the NHS Apps Library.
ORCHA uses a combination of manual and automated assessment processes to scour mobile app marketplaces for applications that can be safely used within clinical settings.

The company conducts a ‘data scrape’ of app stores, such as those belonging to Google and Apple, and then feeds the information through an algorithm that separates legitimate applications from defunct or otherwise unsafe ones.

Legitimate apps can then be collated and reviewed by human assessors to ensure they are secure and fit for clinical use.
The NHS Apps Library currently includes 70 health apps spanning online services, lifestyle advice, and support for a number of health conditions.
ORCHA aims to help bring more verified services onto the market at a quicker pace.

To do this, apps will be assessed against the Digital Assessment Questions (DAQ) process. Developed by NHS Digital, the methodology evaluates apps against a set of criteria including effectiveness, regulatory approval, safety, privacy, security, usability, interoperability, technical stability, and change management.

Speaking to Digital Health News, Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO of ORCHA, said:

“There are three main challenges with mhealth apps and the use and uptake. Those are awareness, access, and the ultimate barrier being trust.

“ORCHA’s mission is to activate people, patients and professionals to be able to search for, find and use the best health apps in their work and lives, as trust is the biggest barrier – reviewing and knowing which are the best is critical.”

ORCHA is part of the NHS Accelerator Programme and already works with 20 CCGs and NHS trusts in England.
Its enlistment by NHS Digital comes after the health body said in February that it would partner with third-party assessors to increase the variety of apps featured in its apps library.

Hazel Jones, Programme Director at NHS Digital, said ORCHA would

“provide a route for regional health and social care providers to find trusted digital tools for their patients and citizens.”

The NHS Apps Library is due to go live nationwide at the tail-end of 2018, with a target of having 100 available in time for its launch.
The primary focus will be to offer apps to patients that support them in the management of common health conditions.
The NHS hopes to have its own app ready for download by December 2018.