Stoke-on-Trent City Council has launched an app to give people access to a library of digital health apps.
It has set up the service with ORCHA – the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps – with the aim of incorporating its own app library.
The app is free to use and is aimed at helping residents to find specialist apps to manage their health.
The council said its own library will have hundreds of independently reviewed and highly rated health apps on a range of medical and lifestyle issues.
It added that there are over 375,000 available but 85% do not meet agreed quality thresholds.
Patient centred
Cllr Ally Simcock, Stoke’s cabinet member for healthcare and adult social care, said: “Health and care apps are an important step in moving towards a more efficient and patient centred approach to social care.
“Health apps are increasingly being used to support patients and service users with long term conditions such as cancer and diabetes and with lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and diet management.
“ORCHA is one of the world’s leading health app evaluation and distribution organisations and this partnership will give confidence to the public and health professionals when choosing the right support for them and service users.”
