Our grateful thanks to ORCHA - 'the world’s leading digital health reviewer' for their input to our radio report - you can hear an extended version of the interview on our podcast - click here to access.
Health Apps (info courtesy orcha)
There are around 374,000 health and fitness apps. Every day, around 30 new app products enter the marketplace.
A survey of doctors and clinicians who owned a smartphone found that 79% would be willing to use their phone for clinical use (Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 2015).
92% of patients who are prescribed an app will use that app, according to evidence gathered by Mount Sinai hospital. In contrast, around £300m is wasted every year in the NHS on unused or partially used medicine (NHS Confederation, 2018).
40% of all GP-patient contacts are now via online consultations, following the pandemic (Practice Business, February 2021).
81% of healthcare professionals believe that health apps will increase their knowledge of patients’ conditions (Research Now, April 2015).
93% of users of health apps think the apps help to improve their quality of life (Research Now).
65% of healthcare professionals believe health apps will encourage patients to take more responsibility for their health (Research Now).
In the first quarter of 2019, 488m health and fitness apps were downloaded. That rose to 593m by quarter one of 2020 (Statista).
Downloads of apps supporting individuals with mental health needs increased by nearly 200% from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2020.
Downloads of apps supporting diets and weight loss rose by 1,294% during that same period.
Downloads of apps helping people manage diabetes rose by 482% across the same time frame.
The quality of apps, however, is an enduring issue. 80% of apps ORCHA reviews score under 65%, which is their baseline of acceptability, so are not featured on their Digital Health Libraries - leaving only 20% of health apps deemed trustworthy: backed by high clinical standards, safe with patient data, and useable.
Listen to this weeks radio report
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