A new group has been formed to drive forward the much needed digital health readiness agenda. This will be led by CECOPS CIC*, and supported by many experts in the digital health space.

The formation of this group follows a webinar run by CECOPS ‘DIGITAL HEALTH READINESS, DURING & POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC’**.

There was an overwhelming sense in the discussion that in order for the digital health marketplace to be sustainable and effective, the issue of organisational readiness should be addressed as a matter of priority.

The task group will be jointly chaired by Professor Mike Bewick (a former deputy medical director at NHS England) and Shane Tickell (Vice Chair, Health and Social Care, TechUK, and CEO Temple Black). The group have agreed that the issue of digital health readiness is beyond further discussion and want to be seen as a ‘Do Tank’.

The overall aims of the group are to establish what digital health readiness actually looks like, share, scale and accelerate it, so that organisations are ready for adopting new innovations and technologies at pace, to ensure improved outcomes and benefits can be fully realised. The group will collaborate with other strategic partners in the space.

“Over recent years there has been some excellent work initiated by organisations like NHS England/Improvement – including the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur programme, NHSX, the Academic Health Science Networks and Digital Health London, looking at innovations. To capitalise on this work we feel readiness is an area where focus needs to be, especially with the momentum COVID-19 has given with regards to looking at digital health; we don’t want to miss this opportunity.” – Professor Bewick

Brian Donnelly, CEO, CECOPS, will lead on the day to day operations of the group and oversee projects, along with a support team. The task group advisory panel includes:

Prof. Mike Bewick (Joint Chair)

Shane Tickell (Joint Chair)

Dr Taz Aldawoud, CCIO, NHS Bradford District and Craven CCG; CEO, Doc Abode (Vice Chair)

Dr. Ruth Ngozi Agbakoba, Academic & Digital Health Consultant (Project Lead & Advisor)

Dr Paul Rice, Regional Director of Digital Transformation, NHS England & NHS Improvement (External Advisor)

Rachel Murphy, CEO, Difrent Group (External Advisor)

Eamus Halpin, Corporate Strategist, Horizon Strategic Partners (External Advisor)

Liz Ashall-Payne, CEO, ORCHA (External Advisor)

Dr Tamsin Holland Brown, Paediatrician, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (External Advisor)

Dr. Sam Shah, Digital Health Tech Advisor (External Advisor)

Neelam Patel, CEO, MedCity (External Advisor)

Helen Hughes, CEO, Patient Safety Learning (External Advisor)

Charlotte Lewis, Commercial Health Lawyer, Mills & Reeve (External Advisor)

Dr. Antonio E. Weiss, Author & Director 2020 Delivery (External Advisor)

Hassan Chaudhury, Digital Health Lead at Healthcare UK (External Advisor)

Andy Wilkins, Co-Founder at Vision4Health & CEO of BE Advisory

Readiness assessments will look mainly at the planning and commissioning of services, including system readiness. It will help bring organisations to the procurement and commissioning phase. Assessments can also cover digital health providers, so that they are also ready to bring their solution to the market.

“This is an excellent opportunity to ensure the system is ready for some of the great innovations out there. This initiative could not have come at a better time. I am delighted to be part of this.” – Dr Taz Aldawoud (Vice Chair)

Readiness will be assessed against the CECOPS International Code of Practice for Planning, Commissioning and Providing Technology Enabled Care Services: A Quality Framework for Procurement and Commissioning of Services, and using the iCOPS® self-assessment and continuous improvement software tool.

Readiness assessments can be undertaken at both micro and macro levels e.g. hospitals, Integrated Care Systems. If you would like to find more about this new task group and how it can support you, please get in touch: T: 01494 863398 | M: 07511667330 | brian@cecops.org.uk

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*CECOPS CIC is the independent standards and accreditation body in the UK for all assistive technology services, including digital health. CECOPS has developed outcome-based standards and currently works with approximately 200 NHS and local authority providers.

** A recording from the webinar can be accessed using the following link and by using the password below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/v8VqJo3a_39JZdaQ13nDfbEdPKvZaaa813NNqPdezkbPFL5cHeZH0mVPqcmgVNVj?startTime=1591792456000

PASSWORD: 7g!n3?.I

Physical and mental wellbeing are major concerns for the public during COVID-19 lockdown, and it is now predicted that self-care will become part of the everyday routine. Lockdown has worsened existing issues with food and mental health, but has also rapidly boosted peoples acceptance for digital healthcare.  This is expected to increase the demand on dietetic services, and with social distancing, new remote ways of providing care are essential.

To help its 10,000 members, the British Dietetic Association is taking the next step in its digital strategy to tackle this challenge. The BDA, Professional body and Trade Union for UK Dietitians, is working with the Organisation for the Review of Health and Care Apps (ORCHA), to produce a library of evaluated health apps.

The Association is also offering its members the opportunity to have apps evaluated by ORCHA.  Should they, or their client, use an app that is not featured in the library, BDA will work with ORCHA to ensure that those apps undergo a rigorous review.  The apps will be tested against 260 criteria, covering clinical effectiveness, data security and usability. This independent assessment will ensure dietetic app choices are fully informed.

Helping identify trustworthy resources

Health apps offer easy, engaging and accessible ways to help clients better track symptoms or self-manage, at home. There are specialised apps across a range of conditions, such as diabetes, IBS, eating disorders and obesity.

With thousands of apps available, it can be hard to find the right one. Type ‘diet’ into Google play store and you’ll get over 1.6 million results, and not all of them are safe, secure or easy to use. The vast majority should be used with caution or avoided completely as they can cause harm.  For example:

• 2/3 of mental health apps fall below quality thresholds.
• Only 28% of weight loss apps meet standards.

The library contains a comprehensive list of several thousand health-related apps – all of which can be searched by condition, intended use, and patient type. Also, all apps in the library have been objectively reviewed and rated, so members can make the best recommendations for their patients. The system provides a full report about the levels of clinical assurance, data privacy and user experience for each app listed.

Najia Qureshi, BDA’s Director of Education, Practice and Policy said: “Apps have the power to transform dietetic services, increasing engagement levels with patients and  helping them to better stick to their personalised plan. Our library will help members harness this opportunity safely, by including only tested apps in their practice. Using this tool, we can unlock the power of Digital Health.”

More young people have been experiencing mental health challenges during lockdown, those receiving NHS treatment before the crisis are receiving reduced or no support at all, and providing remote pastoral care and PSHE is difficult.

Now, as staff plan for the return to school, whilst continuing remote learning too, an increasing number of schools are using digital health as a proactive measure to support their students’ mental and physical health.

Whether as remote pastoral care, part of the return to school process, or general self care for teachers as well as students during school closure, your Digital Healthy Schools App Library is a safe, quick and effective resource to support your students and staff struggling with mental or physical health challenges.

Here, we look at the top five health issues pupils are most searching for help with, and highlight a top-scoring app that can help in each of these areas.

Take steps now to encourage your students to use your App Library and access apps to help their specific needs.

Top five health app searches

Almost one hundred schools across the UK have now activated their Digital Healthy Schools account. These App Libraries can be used to provide remote access to quality assured apps so that students and their families can learn about and manage their mental and physical health.

Over the past three months, the top five most searched for health topics across the Digital Healthy Schools App Libraries have been: sleep, stress, stopping smoking, healthy living, and anxiety.

This search data indicates that looking after students’ mental health and helping them stay healthy has never been more important.

Below, we suggest a top-scoring app for each of these five health issues:

• Sleep: Ambio Sleep Sounds* allows the user to create an atmosphere to aid the sleeping patterns of both themselves and others. Users can create atmospheres and mixes to fit with their individual needs, using either sounds created for Ambio, or sounds from the user’s own device.
• Stress: Chill Panda is a family friendly relaxation, breathing exercise and activity app. It allows children and adults to start to understand how their bodies respond to different feelings, and includes some play based activities demonstrated by a panda avatar.
• Stopping Smoking: My QuitBuddy provides helpful tips and distractions to overcome cravings, tracking systems to chart progress, and facts needed for understanding the impact smoking has on health, helping people to get, and stay, smoke free.
• Healthy Living: Sidekick Health is a social health game designed to motivate and engage people towards a healthy lifestyle. The app allows users to engage in health-improving tasks in various categories such as nutrition, physical activity and mental exercises.
• Anxiety: Wysa* is an emotionally intelligent chatbot which employs research-backed, widely used techniques such as CBT, DBT, Yoga and meditation, to support users with stress, anxiety, sleep, loss and a whole range of other mental health and wellness needs.

To search for, recommend or download these apps and many more, please go to your local DHS App Library.

*may include in-app purchases

Over the past three months, there has been an explosion in digital health adoption as people look for remote ways to manage their health and wellbeing. National Government COVID-19 strategies, local authorities and consumers, have all turned to health apps, both as a potential means of slowing the spread of the virus, and a method of allowing people to self-manage their own health.

Our App Libraries are used by services serving a population of 20 million, thereby acting as a barometer for how the UK is engaging with digital health.

This week, we share our data insights from the first quarter on since COVID-19 came to the UK.¹ How fast have digital health adoption rates escalated? What are the most popular searches? And which health and care apps have been downloaded the most?

Most popular app searches and downloads

More consumers have been using health and care apps. In just one week, we saw an increase of 182.5% in app downloads from our App Libraries, and a 6,500% increase in app recommendations from health and care professionals. But what condition areas are people searching for on app libraries?

We can see from the data across our App Libraries that the most popular search terms over the past quarter, in addition to ‘COVID’, have included: mental health, physiotherapy, MSK, fitness, anxiety, activity, neurology, rehabilitation, diabetes, respiratory, and sleep.

Whereas ‘COVID’ was initially the most searched term at the beginning of the outbreak, people are now searching for specific condition areas. This indicates a shift in focus to actively self-managing health and wellbeing, as well as a desire for knowledge about particular health areas.

Our word cloud below provides a visualisation of the most popular searches over the past three months:

The below list gives an insight into the top five most downloaded apps across our App Libraries over the past three months:

• Wysa is an emotionally intelligent chatbot which employs research-backed, widely used techniques such as CBT, DBT, yoga and meditation, to support users with stress, anxiety, sleep, loss and a whole range of other mental health and wellness needs.
• my mhealth is the leading supplier of self-management and rehabilitation apps and platforms in the UK for patients with COPD, Asthma, Diabetes and Heart Disease. These patient apps interact with a condition specific clinical interface, enabling efficient, population level remote models of care.
• Musculoskeletal (MSK) Self-Care offers support and guidance on how to manage a Musculoskeletal (MSK) condition or injury. This can relate to any injury, disease or problem with muscles, bones or joints. The app’s clinical guidance and exercise videos can be of benefit to anyone with an MSK condition/injury.
• Sidekick is a social health game designed to motivate and engage people towards a healthy lifestyle. The app allows people to communicate and collaborate with friends and colleagues in various categories such as nutrition, physical activity and mental exercises.
• GPEP Physiotherapy Exercises has been designed with the help of NHS GPs and physiotherapists with the aim of bringing users access to self-help advice from professionals, enabling users with back, muscle and joint conditions to start their recovery early.

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References:

1) British Foreign Policy Group: COVID-19 Timeline