Launch of the first-ever toolkit to help people understand and use health apps
©PatientView Ltd 2014
Author: Tony Newbold
Editors: Clive Nead, Dee O’Sullivan, Alexandra Wyke
Designer: Mark Ansell

A clear, concise, simple manual to help patients and the public make the best choices and decisions about health apps, “Health Apps—a Toolkit to Help You”, is available in print and online. Launched today, Wednesday, 1st October 2014, at the European Health Forum Gastein 2014, and circulated to the Forum’s 650 delegates (who come from all over Europe and beyond, and who represent the key stakeholders of the European health policy community).

This Toolkit is needed to answer the many questions that patients and carers have about health apps
A soon-to-be-published study* by PatientView will reveal that the public are confused by the sheer number of health apps available (100,000), and are not sure that a particular health app will help them. Members of the public may also not trust health apps, because they do not know who makes the apps, or whether their health data would be secure on an app.

[*Source: “What do patients and carers want from health apps?” A July-October 2014 global survey of over 1,000 patients, conducted by PatientView in collaboration with Health 2.0. Survey results to be released Monday, 10th November 2014, at the 2014 Health 2.0 conference in London.]
 

“The myhealthapps’ Toolkit is a good initiative to empower citizens. It is the type of health-literacy project that the European Commission encourages.”

—Robert Madelin, Director General, DG CONNECT, European Commission

“Health Apps—a Toolkit to Help You” takes a comprehensive approach to helping people find and use tried-and-tested health apps. It walks the reader through each step of a journey towards getting started with health apps. The Toolkit identifies the main pitfalls with health apps, and educates on how to overcome these problems. Every one of the five main sections of the Toolkit is in its own dedicated colour (the colour coding further eases navigation through this simple manual). Future editions of the Toolkit are planned—to take account of regulatory changes and other developments in the fast-moving health-app scene.

URL LINK: “Health Apps—a Toolkit to Help You”

[http://www.blastphotography.co.uk/patientview.html]

The Toolkit was developed by PatientView (publisher of myhealthapps.net), in consultation with patient groups, healthcare professionals, app developers, regulators, and with the pharma, medtech, and mobile-technology industries. We at PatientView are grateful for their feedback.

We would also like to thank all the partners of myhealthapps.net (the European Connected Health Alliance; the European Health Forum Gastein; GSK; Health 2.0; Janssen; NHS England; Novo Nordisk; and Telefonica) for their support in the development and dissemination of myhealthapps.net and the Toolkit.

In addition, we are grateful to the following individuals and organisations for their insightful comments and contributions: the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (EPSA); David Grainger of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA); Andy Jones of AstraZeneca; Tony Kane of Tony Kane Consulting; Charles Lowe of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), and also of the Digital Health and Care Alliance (DHACA); Jocelyn Parkes of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS); and Dr Mike Short, CBE, of Telefonica.

We would also like to thank the European Commission for its encouragement for myhealthapps.net.

Finally, we would like to thank all the app developers whose apps are featured on the myhealthapps.net website, and whose icons are being used for illustrative purposes in the Toolkit.