Online and digital health and wellbeing services have seen a huge boom in recent years but with thousands of apps out there it can be hard to know what is trustworthy.
That’s why Derbyshire County Council, in partnership with The Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA), has launched a Health and Care Apps library.
The library contains hundreds of independently reviewed apps to meet your needs and you can visit the library at derbyshire.orcha.co.uk
With the widespread use of smartphones and tablets, and the ever-increasing use of apps for anything from tracking jogging routes to providing dinner recipes, there is a real opportunity for apps to help people manage their health conditions or general wellbeing.
However, with so many health apps available it can be difficult to find one that's appropriate, trustworthy and effective.
County Council partner ORCHA has formed an experienced team of people, including actively practicing clinicians, to review and accredit health apps.
Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Communities Councillor Carol Hart said: “More and more health and wellbeing information is available online, and it can pose a problem for people who might not know if an app is reliable or trustworthy.
“Our new apps library takes the hard work out of finding quality assured health and wellbeing apps.
“We do not expect apps or the library to replace any services that people may already be using, but rather to complement them.”
ORCHA use over 300 different criteria to rate the apps on. These include clinical/professional assurance, data and privacy and usability and accessibility. They then give each app an easy to understand percentage score which will help people decide whether to download it or not.