We are proud to have contributed to Healthcare Enablers 2020, a new publication that explores how we can work together to make healthcare technology an integral part of our healthcare system.

On pages 22 and 23 of the publication, ORCHA’s Founding CEO, Liz Ashall-Payne, and Health Economist, Simon Leigh, discuss how COVID-19 has given us a platform to unlock the potential of digital health.

The publication aims to increase the knowledge about technological developments in healthcare, to strengthen the ability to innovate. Partly driven by the COVID-19 crisis, interest in digital solutions is growing rapidly among health and care professionals, patients, and health and care organizations.

But the possibilities are endless.

That is why Healthcare Enablers consolidates a yearly selection of technologies that they believe can really help healthcare. To inspire, but also to enable us together to pick the low-hanging fruit of new technologies and to work towards a sustainable healthcare system where quality and efficiency go hand in hand.

To download the free eBook of Healthcare Enablers 2020, please click here.

Learn more about the publication in the video above.

The vast majority of health and care services now use digital technologies to help citizens change habits and make healthier choices. But with so many different tools available it can be hard to know which ones work best. We are delighted that NICE has published a practical guide to show how to develop, commission, and use digital health to improve behavior change services.

In our latest newsletter, we summarise the guidance and share with you how Staffordshire Council has embedded digital health into its behavior change services and is seeing a real impact. We also invite you to a free webinar where you will hear Crystal Dennis, Interim Lead, Public Facing Digital Health Services, Our Dorset Digital, explain how they have embedded digital into behavior change services, and the results are seen.

Top 5 Actions from the New NICE Guidelines

In the recently published NICE Guideline ‘Behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions’, the committee recommends the use of digital and mobile health interventions to change unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, high alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, sedentary behavior, and unsafe sex. But most importantly, NICE provides advice on how you can use evidence to improve care and services in this growing practice.

A helpful and practical tool for anyone developing, commissioning, or using digital health, we’ve summarised the 5 most significant points. Read in full. 

Free webinar: digital interventions for behavior change

We would like to invite you to join our upcoming free webinar, Digital Interventions for Behaviour Change, on Wednesday 9th December at 14:00 – 15:00 GMT.

In this webinar, Liz Ashall Payne, CEO at ORCHA, and Crystal Dennis, Interim Lead, Public Facing Digital Health Services at Our Dorset Digital, explain how Dorset has embedded digital into behavior change services, and the results are seen.

Register for free here.

Staffordshire Public Health Changes Lives with Digital Health

With around 40% of ill health preventable, and obesity, smoking, and diabetes the major factors, Staffordshire Council’s support services aim to help people make better lifestyle choices. Although effective, the team identified that face-to-face appointments don’t work for everyone, and even during COVID-19, when appointments were moved online, the format still stops many people from engaging. So the team took steps to introduce Digital Health. Read how “the program has been a success. We see the number of recommendations and downloads growing and know that for many, it is helping to change their lives and become healthier.” Read the full case study.

ORCHA is part of the NHS England National Innovation Accelerator Programme. We work with health bodies across the world to unlock the power of Digital Health, including NHS organizations in 50% of regions. Our vision is to revolutionize care through the safe integration of digital health solutions into all aspects of health and care services, leading to more patient-centered, effective care. You can now search ORCHA’s App Library at appfinder.orcha.co.uk

ORCHA provides tailored microsites and prescription services and helps organizations across the world to integrate health and care apps safely into practice. To find out how ORCHA can help you, please get in touch.

In the recently published NICE Guideline ‘Behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions’, the committee recommends the use of digital and mobile health interventions to change unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, high alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, sedentary behavior, and unsafe sex. But most importantly, NICE provides advice on how you can use evidence to improve care and services in this growing area.

We’ve summarised the 5 most significant points from this helpful and practical tool for anyone developing, commissioning, or using digital health, and explain below how ORCHA can help.

1. Evidence: If you are developing or commissioning an app, refer to the NICE evidence Standards Framework for digital technologies. This is an important standard and just one of the 350 relevant standards and measures that ORCHA checks for in its app review process.
2. Embed: The committee advises that digital interventions should be considered as part of an overall approach to behavior change and be part of existing strategies for behavior change rather than as a standalone approach. ORCHA’s team has been embedding apps into practice since 2015 and knows how professionals can include apps before, during, and after behavior change programs. Take a look at our impact as part of diabetes programs.
3. Target: It was identified that digital interventions are particularly beneficial for people who cannot or will not be able to attend weekly face-to-face services. It highlights that some people may find it difficult to attend regular face-to-face support because of work or may want to avoid the perceived or actual stigma they experience when accessing services. In addition, people who are shielded during the COVID-19 pandemic may benefit from using digital and mobile interventions as it allows them to access a remote service during social distancing. With our experience of providing health app libraries to NHS organizations in 50% of regions, our insight enables you to spot cohorts who need to uptake or already engage with digital health. Our recent COVID-19 digital health report is a good place to start.
4. Personalise: Discuss the use of a digital or mobile health intervention with the person, understanding their digital, health and reading literacy. Also consider a person’s age, data security, pricing, and platform preferences. ORCHA’s app libraries have been designed with this in mind. You can search for apps using filters such as price and age; our app cards provide data security and usability detail that help further inform your app choice.
5. Reference sites: The committee recommends using reputable sources when choosing digital and mobile health interventions but recognizes that digital technology moves quickly, which can make it difficult for those evaluating a specific digital or mobile health intervention to be completed in a timely manner. That’s why ORCHA re-reviews any app that has been updated and updates its own review criteria every year.

The NICE Guidelines provide a fantastic resource, featuring evidence review reports, practical steps to develop or commission digital health, plus a baseline assessment tool.

If you would like to understand how you can apply the NICE guidelines to your digital health program and safely unlock the power of digital health, please get in touch.

We are currently in an era of opportunity. A huge amount of investment is stimulating development in data science, promising new means to optimize health and quality of life at the person and population level. Empowered with this opportunity, and the surge in globalization that new technologies have fuelled, researchers, clinicians, and policymakers must consider: how can we improve health not just in one country, but globally?

Earlier this year, ORCHA CEO Liz Ashall-Payne spoke at the UK-Japan Symposium on Data-Driven Health. Over three sessions, this event considered data strategies to predict risk, prevent and manage disease in individuals and populations, and examine the assistive technologies that may arise from these. The symposium brought together representatives from academia, industry, and the healthcare sector in the UK and Japan to explore this challenge in the context of:

• The health data landscape and resources in the UK and Japan
• Health Data for public health
• Health Data for clinical decision making

Click here to read the full write-up of the key messages to emerge from the conference, featuring Liz Ashall-Payne’s insights.

Liz explained that the biggest blockers to the increased use and integration of health apps are awareness, access, trust, and governance issues. To tackle these, ORCHA has built a review and accreditation engine that scrutinizes health apps across areas including data privacy, security, clinical assurance, and user experience in collaboration with experts. ORCHA then distributes this review information via health app libraries in the UK and abroad, which help users to find and access trustworthy apps that are tailored to their individual needs. ORCHA has worked closely with organizations, including NICE, to produce their efficacy framework, and is working with NHS Digital on projects including the NHS App, signposting how integral health applications may become to how we access healthcare in the future.