At the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA) we have been assessing health and care apps, and digital health products, since 2015. We also help deliver digital health, create assessments for national bodies, and support digital health suppliers.

Assessing digital health products

An assessment involves asking questions about a health or care app, or a digital health product, to see if it meets standards in these five main domains: 

• Data and privacy – How safe your private information is, and what happens to it 
• Professional assurance and clinical safety – If a health or care professional thinks it’s safe and can support your health, and if there is evidence to support that 
• Usability and accessibility – How easy it is to use for the age and ability of a person 
• Interoperability – How well it can connect with an existing system 
• Technical security and stability – How well it works and if it can be hacked 

Delivering digital health

We also create systems to share the information we find out about health or care apps and digital health products. These include digital health libraries (App Libraries), formularies and toolkits. This helps give health or care professionals and organisations the confidence to recommend them to you.

Creating assessments for national bodies

As experts in digital health standards, we work with governments to create their own digital health product standards for countries around the world. For example, we helped develop the Digital Health Assessment Framework (DHAF) in the US, in collaboration with the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). We’ve also helped develop the Nordic Digital Health Evaluation Criteria (NordDEC).

Supporting digital health suppliers

Through our assessment process, we also help digital health suppliers, such as app developers, create or improve their health or care apps and digital health products.
 

At ORCHA we want to make digital health safe, sustainable and easy to access for everyone that may benefit from using it.

For more information, please continue browsing our website or get in touch with our team here.