News

The UK’s first Digital Health Formulary and a Health App Library just for citizens

The UK’s first Digital Health Formulary and a Health App Library just for citizens
Apps, Digital Health Solutions
Member News

Following the rapid growth of the digital health sector, healthcare professionals and citizens now have distinct and different needs from their health app libraries – and so ORCHA has created products exactly tailored for each of these two audiences.

  • ORCHA Digital Health Formularies will ensure professionals can prescribe more complex apps safely and monitor their use by patients.
  • ORCHA Health App Libraries will contain only over-the-counter health apps, safe for citizens to download and use without medical oversight.

The UK’s first Digital Health Formulary

Nearly 75 years after the publication of the first British National Formulary (BNF), the essential prescribing tool depended upon by all healthcare professionals, the UK’s first Digital Health Formulary sets up a system for prescribing safe health apps to patients.

GP Tom Micklewright, ORCHA’s medical director, said:

“The original BNF was introduced because in the first half of the 20th century doctors were faced with an increasingly complex range of drugs and influential pharmaceutical industry. They realised they needed high-quality and independent advice. We are in the same situation again now, as pressures on our healthcare systems make us look at revolutionary new ways of doing things.”

The new formulary can be integrated into existing patient record systems, such as CERNER or EPIC dashboards. It’s a single source from which to find health apps which have been pre-selected and vetted by healthcare colleagues.

Within three clicks, healthcare professionals can send a health app recommendation to a patient via a secure text or email. Recommendations and patient downloads can be tracked, ensuring good governance. The healthcare provider can also take an overview, monitoring how many apps it is prescribing and which are being downloaded and used by patients.

A safe health app library for citizens

Consumer research* has indicated that 62% of people are interested in using apps and many are finding them themselves rather than through a healthcare professional (55% had received their recommendation from a healthcare professional). This raises serious concerns about quality, as only 20% of the 320,000 health apps currently available are safe to use.**

From now, ORCHA will be developing straightforward, easy-to-use app libraries in partnership with healthcare providers, which allow patients to easily find apps they can use unaided. Only consumer-friendly, over-the-counter apps which require no input from a healthcare professionals will be included on these libraries.

The app libraries are structured on simple, pre-built layouts. They can be presented in several languages and configurations and designed to support health strategies and key health priorities of each health care provider. The libraries can only be accessed within the geographical territory of the healthcare providers, ensuring that all the regulations for that territory area met safely and that data governance and residency requirements are met.

The reporting dashboard will enable the provider to have new population insights.

Tom Micklewright said:

“We want to get safe digital health to those who need it as safely and quickly as possible, so we’ve designed the libraries with usability and accessibility as an absolute priority. We’re proud that our libraries are rated AA for web content accessibility. They’re modern, responsive, and mobile first.”

These two new products are part of an expansive range of ORCHA products designed to give health and care providers everything they need to deliver digital health safely.

Discover more about ORCHA

The Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA) is the world’s leading, independent digital health evaluation and distribution organisation. It helps health and care organisations to deliver the right digital health apps, to the right people, at the right time. Its unique insight, assessment, and implementation services are improving the health of the population, the health of our health systems and the health of the health app ecosystem. ORCHA conducts reviews for government organisations across Europe, the Middle East, and Australasia. In the UK, ORCHA conducts reviews for NHS Digital and NHS providers in 70% of regions.

NEWS​

Related News

The Galician Health Cluster (CSG) participates in the Twinning Digital Health Uptake (DHU) project in 2024

18 Mar 2024
In a context where technology and innovation are rapidly transforming the way we conceive and deliver health and care services, the Galician Health Cl...

JAMRAI-2 project begins to provide a unified response to antibiotic resistance

18 Mar 2024
JAMRAI-2 seeks to implement concrete actions to monitor, prevent and effectively tackle antimicrobial resistance across human, animal and environmenta...

R&D actors in spotlight – Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine

18 Mar 2024
Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine is a centre for exercise medicine supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The institute’s a...

Estonian and Finnish healthcare sectors join forces for innovation

18 Mar 2024
In a groundbreaking move towards advancing innovation in the healthcare sector, representatives from Estonia and Finland gathered at the Embassy of Fi...

Ulster University & University College London to Establish £11.7m Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Health Technologies

18 Mar 2024
We are pleased that our ECHAlliance Foundation Partners Ulster University have celebrated this month with the announcement of the recruitment of 75 re...

The Quadruple Helix: Unleashing Innovation Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration

14 Mar 2024
By Robyn Freiheit, Innovation Project Manager, ECHAlliance - The Global Health Connector

Become a member

Join ECHAlliance to amplify your organisation’s message, grow your networks, connect with innovators and collaborate globally.
 
First name *
Last Name *
Email Address *
Country *
Position *
First name *
Last Name *
Email Address *
Country *
Position *