my mhealth launches COPD app in New Zealand in partnership with Vodafone and district health board.

9 Sep, 2021

myCOPD is the first digital self-management programme for COPD to be available in New Zealand.



Digital therapeutics pioneer my mhealth has announced the first international rollout of its digital therapeutic, myCOPD in New Zealand. The rollout is initially focused on the Māori and Pasifika population, a first for a British made digital self-management programme designed specifically for COPD.

Within one District Health Board (DHB), around 300 patients will be the first in the country to have access to the app, with an aim to expand patient access. Over the last 2 years of working closely together, with COVID impacting initial launch plans, my mhealth and the leading DHB have the first COPD patients now benefiting from the online therapeutic. myCOPD provides patients with access to a digital self-management programme, perfecting inhaler technique with easy-to-follow inhaler videos, access to online pulmonary rehabilitation and learning how to manage their COPD from world experts. All of this enables healthcare professionals to remotely monitor symptoms of COPD, evolve and enhance service access for patients.

COPD is a major respiratory disease in New Zealand. An estimated 15% (200,000) of all New Zealanders aged over 45 years suffer from the condition and is the fourth leading cause of death in the region behind cancer, heart disease and stroke. The DHB set out to find a new digital solution to improve patient care as well as reducing costs of unnecessary admissions and discrepancies surrounding the access to and availability of healthcare. Following investment from Vodafone New Zealand, the clear objective is to improve the health of COPD patients and their access to services, with part of the population disproportionately affected with a prevalence twice that of other ethnic groups1.

The DHB selected myCOPD as the chosen solution, as the platform provides the key requirements local patients asked for, as well as the capacity to serve as a blueprint for other chronic conditions such as heart failure and diabetes. All of these have similar needs that are currently not being met due to lack of sufficient funding. Currently in the UK the app is used by over 50,000 people, improving the quality of care and the frequency of their check-ins.

Global Lead for my mhealth, Ian Thompson, commented:

"All of us here at my mhealth are excited to bring myCOPD into New Zealand and into the respiratory teams hands at the DHB. We have been working together for almost 2 years to get this moving; the global pandemic prevented us getting started a year ago, but through hard work by all involved, we have finally got the first patients on board myCOPD.

The main part of our work is focused on ensuring adaptations that are needed to the platform meet the needs of the Māori and Pasifika populations. We also want to recognise the support from Vodafone NZ, who have provided funds for this initial program. This support from Vodafone NZ puts the local digital health economy on its first steps towards its digital evolution, supporting the access of services into the homes of patients across the DHB and beyond for those suffering with COPD. This is something we have been doing with the NHS for a number of years and hope our learnings can accelerate the digital adoption."



Chief Enterprise Officer at Vodafone NZ, Lindsay Zwart, added:

"We’re constantly looking out for world-class digital solutions to enhance the lives of New Zealanders, and my mhealth exemplifies this approach. This initial deployment with the DHB will enable us to test whether the myCOPD app can help to improve the health and future outcomes for COPD patients in the region, and if this technology can be rolled out further around New Zealand."

If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how myCOPD can help your patients - anywhere in the world, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583


References
1. Nation Health Committee (2013) Respiratory Disease in New Zealand



By July 2024 07 Aug, 2024
NHS University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, part of North Central London ICB, is taking a significant step towards enhancing patient empowerment and optimising disease management. Asthma is a chronic condition that affects millions of people worldwide, often leading to severe health complications if not managed properly. Recognising the critical need for effective self-management tools, NHS University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has chosen the myAsthma app to provide patients with the resources they need to take control of their health. Dr Kay Roy PhD FRCP, Consultant Respiratory Physician University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, comments “We are thrilled to introduce myAsthma as a self-management tool to our community. It represents a significant step forward in empowering our patients with asthma to take control of their health. By providing them with personalised support, we believe this tool will greatly improve their quality of life. Additionally, the use of myAsthma in outpatient settings will help triage patients more effectively, ensuring they are seen in a timely manner and appropriately referred for the right investigations and services. Our team is excited to see the positive impact this will have on the asthma population across North Central London ICB." The myAsthma app, part of the my mhealth suite of digital health solutions, is designed to empower patients with comprehensive tools and information to manage their asthma more effectively. Key features include: • Personalised Action Plans: Tailored asthma management plans based on individual patient needs. • Inhaler technique training: Contributing to better health outcomes and reduced risk of exacerbations • Medication Tracking: Reminders and logs to ensure patients take their medication as prescribed. • Symptom tracking: Easy-to-use tools for tracking symptoms and triggers. • Educational Resources: Access to a wealth of information on asthma, helping patients understand their condition and how to manage it. As more NHS partners embrace the my mhealth platform, we're thrilled to witness its growing impact and the positive changes it is bringing to long-term condition care. For more information on this article or other my mhealth projects, please get in touch https://mymhealth.com/contact-us
By The my mhealth data library is an extensive resource designed to support healthcare providers by offering a wealth of information and tools related to COPD and long-term health conditions. 07 Aug, 2024
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Permission to use received from Rebecca Fowler View poster
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Francesca D’angelo 1 Charlotte Smith 2 University Hospital of Derby and Burton, Health and Wellbeing Department, Burton, UK University Hospital of Derby and Burton, Cardiac Rehabilitation Department, Burton Upon Trent, UK. To examine the effectiveness of psychological outcomes using a web-based Cardiac Rehabilitation application compared with a conventional programme or a combination of both. University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust poster presented at the BACPR Annual Conference October 5-6th 2023 Poster presented at the BACPR Annual Conference October 5-6th 2023 Permission to use received from Charlotte Smith
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Christopher Duckworth 1 Bethany Cliffe 2. Brian Pickering 1 Ben Ainsworth 2 Alison Blythin 3 Adam Kirk 3 Adam Kirk Thomas M. A. Wilkinson 3,4,5 Michael J. Boniface 1 1 IT Innovation Centre, Digital Health and Biomedical Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. 2. School of Psychology, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK my mHealth Limited, London, UK. National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration Wessex, University of Southampton , Southampton , GB Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton , GB Mobile Health (mHealth) has the potential to be transformative in the management of chronic conditions. Machine learning can leverage self-reported data collected with apps to predict periods of increased health risk, alert users, and signpost interventions. Despite this, mHealth must balance the treatment burden of frequent self-reporting and predictive performance and safety. Here we report how user engagement with a widely used and clinically validated mHealth app, myCOPD (designed for the self-management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), directly impacts the performance of a machine learning model predicting an acute worsening of condition (i.e., exacerbations). We classify how users typically engage with myCOPD, finding that 60.3% of users engage frequently, however, less frequent users can show transitional engagement (18.4%), becoming more engaged immediately ( < 21 days) before exacerbating. Machine learning performed better for users who engaged the most, however, this performance decrease can be mostly offset for less frequent users who engage more near exacerbation. We conduct interviews and focus groups with myCOPD users, highlighting digital diaries and disease acuity as key factors for engagement. Users of mHealth can feel overburdened when self-reporting data necessary for predictive modelling and confidence of recognising exacerbations is a significant barrier to accurate self-reported data. We demonstrate that users of mHealth should be encouraged to engage when they notice changes to their condition (rather than clinically defined symptoms) to achieve data that is still predictive for machine learning, while reducing the likelihood of disengagement through desensitisation. Read more
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