Health and care professionals get online with ORCHA
Date posted: 28th November 2017
GPs and other health and care professionals are amongst a growing number of people in Lancashire and South Cumbria using an exciting new website to get access to the best-rated health and care apps available online.
The Lancashire and South Cumbria Orcha website, brought to us by ORCHA – the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps, provides access to a range of health apps that have received fully impartial reviews taking into account such priorities as user experience, clinical effectiveness, and data security.
Scoring criteria has been added to the reviews to help people make informed decisions with more confidence more quickly. Once they’ve decided which app to try, ORCHA will easily allow it to be downloaded direct from Google Play or the App Store.
The website is available for free, both to members of the public looking to download and use the best apps to manage their health, and to health and care professionals looking to use their specialist ORCHA Pro accounts to recommend apps via text/email to promote healthy living and/or to supplement their care delivery.
The introduction of ORCHA is part of a drive across Lancashire and South Cumbria to find new ways of helping people to care for their own health and wellbeing.
Dr Amanda Thornton, Digital Health & Activation Clinical Lead for Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria Change Programme (STP) said:
“This is hugely exciting for the people of Lancashire and South Cumbria as well as the health and care professionals who support them, for whom this is a win-win. Assured by ORCHA’s review process and the new highest rated apps in key priority areas we can engage with all of our clinicians, encouraging them to ‘prescribe a health app’ where appropriate.”
Dr George Dingle, a GP in the Morecambe Bay area, said:
“I’m fully supportive of ORCHA and of the Pro accounts which allow us to prescribe apps direct to our patients. Health and care apps can offer a huge benefit to patients, really empowering them to manage and improve their health. However there is a huge choice out there so ORCHA really helps all involved to understand which are the best and most trustworthy.”