ORCHA and NeLL: working together on the international development of reliable digital care

World market leader in the assessment of care applications: ORCHA (Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications) and eHealth knowledge platform NeLL (National eHealth Living Lab) are entering into a strategic, international partnership.

The parties will jointly fulfill their shared mission to optimally integrate digital healthcare applications into existing healthcare processes. In this way they want to contribute to the international development of optimal, future-proof care.

“To arrive at a process in which the healthcare professional will also recommend digital tools to his or her patient, we must know for sure which eHealth tools are effective. That is why research into and validation of digital healthcare applications is a must,” says Niels Chavannes, founder of NeLL and professor of eHealth at the LUMC.

Working together on future-proof care

One of the first steps ORCHA and NeLL take is to prove which tools are effective and reliable, so that the healthcare professional knows what he or she can recommend to the patient and the healthcare consumer understands what safe and efficient apps are that support him effectively with self-care. In addition, ORCHA and NeLL will proactively share their knowledge and insights and advise parties on areas such as quality, implementation and scaling up of digital healthcare applications.

ORCHA

ORCHA, originally an English organisation, has developed an infrastructure in recent years to collect new and updated versions of eHealth applications on a continuous basis and to assess them on basic elements. Works in the United Kingdom have been commissioned by the NHS, among others. In the partnership with NeLL, the ORCHA team will focus on further technical and data-driven development for assessing eHealth apps.

“The range of health apps is huge. These apps are available to everyone and are not checked for publication in the app stores. We are constantly engaged in scanning the offer and reviewing apps in order to separate all nonsense from the usable tools, ”explains Tim Andrews, co-founder of ORCHA.

NeLL

NeLL is also a global leader when it comes to scientific research into digital care and the development of research methodology and standards for eHealth. For example, they are currently working on an international standard for the development of health applications on behalf of NEN / CEN. In this collaboration, the NeLL team will therefore focus on the further development of scientific evaluation and the analysis and optimization of criteria and methodology.

“The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport wholeheartedly supports innovation initiatives such as ORCHA and NeLL. We need this international cooperation in order to organize healthcare in a smarter way and to be able to exchange medical data securely, ” says the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.

The original press release can be found here on nell.eu