News
July 9th 2019 – My IBD Care, an app for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, has entered the Orcha listings as the highest rated app in its segment.
Hundreds of digital health apps are released onto the market each day. For healthcare professionals, knowing which is clinically credible – and should therefore be recommended to patients – and which is not presents a significant problem. Orcha seeks to address this problem by applying a seven step framework to the evaluation of health apps, with results being published on Orcha’s website.
MyIBD Care is the first module of Ampersand Health’s (www.ampersand.health) digital therapeutic platform. It gives patients:
- Easy access to a personalised care plan, including medication and appointment reminders
- Condition, behavioural and symptom tracking
- Self management advice from Crohn’s & Colitis UK and the NHS
- Timely and personalised interventions from their clinicians
- Two way (asynchronous) communication with their hospital team
It provides clinical teams with real time reporting and analytics, per patient or across the department; and enables remote clinical monitoring monitoring and swift interventions that are shown to reduce planned and unplanned hospital visits.
Assessed in June 2019, MyIBD Care achieved a rating of 85% in Orcha’s tests – by some distance the highest score achieved by any app for IBD patients. The Orcha review highlighted the involvement of qualified professionals in the development of My IBD Care, which was developed with clinicians and patients at King’s College Hospital and Bart’s Health.
What next?
Getting a high score from Orcha means that MyIBD Care will get exposed to more healthcare professionals and users as a validated solution for IBD patients and their clinical teams. In fact, the Orcha score is promoted through multiple microsites aimed at health communities and organisations around the UK.
To maintain relevance in the Orcha app store, the app has to continuously be updated and reviewed and is scrutinised on an ongoing basis.
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About Ampersand
Ampersand Health is developing the first scientifically-validated digital therapeutic for people with long term inflammatory conditions. It works with other impact focused organisations and subject matter experts to promote improved health and quality of life for people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Inflammatory Dermatitis. The company is recognised in the Digital Health Global 100, winner of an HSJ Award, the NHS Ideas Lab and the NHS Hackfest and is part of the Scale Health accelerator programme run by DigitalHealth.London and PWC. Ampersand also won an Innovate UK grant, and is MHRA-accredited and NICE-assessed.
About Orcha
Orcha is a leading health app evaluation organisation with a highly advanced review process and mechanism. They present a plethora of safe and outcomes-oriented apps that healthcare organisations can choose from. The apps that make Orcha’s cut are prescribable by health professionals.
About Crohn’s & Colitis UK
Crohn’s & Colitis UK is the UK’s leading charity for Crohn’s and Colitis. Right now, over 300,000 people in the UK are living with a lifelong disease that many people have never heard of. And the real number could be almost double that. Because of the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding these disease, thousands of people are suffering in silence. But they are not alone. We’re here for everyone affected by Crohn’s and Colitis.
Crohn’s & Colitis UK is working to improve diagnosis and treatment, and to fund research into a cure; to raise awareness and to give people hope, comfort and confidence to live freer, fuller lives.
To see the Orcha review in detail visit https://appfinder.orcha.co.uk/review/158194/ or email us at contact@ampersandhealth.co.uk
The app is available to download on Google Play: http://bit.do/myibdgoogleplay and the App Store: http://bit.do/myibdappstore
