Citizens and ex-pats based in Dubai will have access to the Middle East’s first digital health library, thanks to a ground-breaking partnership between the Osteopathic Health Centre, Dubai, and ORCHA (the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps), the world’s largest app review and distribution company.
The Centre, founded in 2000, takes a holistic approach to medicine, specializing in non-invasive and manual therapies.
This one-year contract, which has the option to renew for a further two years, will complement the Centre’s existing offer, allowing a projected 40,000 customers in the country to access a library of top-rated health apps, to support with everything from smoking cessation to mental health support, to allergies to obesity.
An additional key focus for the app library will be family medicine, an area that provides family members with support on sexual health, ante- and post-natal care, and family planning plus a broad range of physical conditions.
As part of the partnership, ORCHA will provide all the Centre’s practitioners with CPD-accredited training in how to use digital health plus an online Digital Health Formulary, which will enable apps to be selected and prescribed in the same way as traditional medicines are prescribed.
A full library of apps will be hosted on the Centre’s web pages, each of which has been tested against more than 350 digital health standards and meet crucial ISO 82304-2 benchmarks. Patients will also be able to browse and learn about what’s available, helping them to self-manage conditions from their homes.
Nargis Raza, Proprietor and Director of the Centre said:
“Digital health is an idea whose time has come, for our country and our region. Evidence is mounting year by year that apps improve outcomes. For example, only 2% of those with COPD today use an app, yet clinical studies confirm that the right apps can improve outcomes and reduce the need for medical appointments.
“Many of our patients experience chronic back pain and we’ll be using our app library to recommend the best apps to help them self-manage this debilitating condition at home, as part of our care programme.”
Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East, Simon Penney, said:
“Digital technologies have been at the heart of the public health response to Covid-19 worldwide and we’ve all learned that with digital on hand, we can do far more with less. It’s heartening to see Dubai’s Osteopathic Health Centre leading the way in the Middle East with this forward-thinking contract with ORCHA. The centre’s patients will benefit in so many ways and I hope this is the start of a leap forward in digital health for the country and the entire region.”
ORCHA business development director, George Kowalski, who will be based in Dubai to oversee the project, said:
“When it comes to digital health, the UAE is at a turning point. The population is very mobile, as we have so many ex-pats in the country, and a by-product of this over the last year has been an increased COVID-19 infection rate. Medical practitioners haven’t been able to see enough patients, due to strict safety protocols. Being able to give patients access to high-quality, safe apps will be transformational.
“We are here to support the Centre with its innovative project and part of that will mean engaging with patients and professionals to help them understand the benefits of health apps.
“In the future we’d like to see digital health technologies adopted across the entire UAE, along with a standardised approach, in the same way that Europe’s Nordic states are working together to create a unified platform across five independent countries. The result will be improved healthcare access for millions of people.”
The nationals this week highlighted ORCHA’s research into the quality of health and care apps.
Health app usage has boomed by 25% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – equivalent to an extra five million downloads every day. But research shows that only around 20% of these apps are safe, secure, and meet clinical standards.
With approximately 370,000 health and care apps available online, it can be difficult to sort those that can be trusted as safe to use, from those that may potentially be harmful. ORCHA’s independent Review evaluates digital health solutions against 350+ criteria to determine their quality assurance. Reviewed, quality assured apps are distributed via ORCHA’s Digital Health Libraries, so that patients and professionals have transparency as to which health and care apps are safe to use.
Read more in the coverage below:
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.