News

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 16 June, 2024 07 Aug, 2024
As the world changes around us, the NHS not only needs to keep up with this change but also transcend the increasing needs and demands placed on this behemoth system. I sidestepped into the world of digital technology about 6 years ago after spending a decade on the front line and experiencing firsthand the challenges of providing care with increasing demand but limited supply. To say I was naïve to the world of technology is an understatement and I very quickly came to realise that whilst the mode of delivery was different, the barriers and hurdles were not. Technology encompasses all aspects of our lives and without sounding archaic, there seems to be an app for everything! Undoubtedly this has made navigating everyday tasks easier but where does this leave healthcare and how we validate and standardise the approach to health technology?
By 1 Nov, 2023 07 Aug, 2024
In a significant stride towards addressing health inequalities and improving asthma management, NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough has chosen the myAsthma app for widespread deployment across the ICS. This announcement follows the resounding success of the myAsthma Project conducted last year within the ICS. Funded by NHSx, the focus of the myAsthma Project was to target 9 primary care practices with the highest health care utilisation and level of deprivation associated with asthma in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, to evaluate the effectiveness of the myAsthma app. Asthma is a common respiratory condition, but stark disparities in prevalence and associated healthcare outcomes are evident across the UK. Shedding light on this issue, a report from Asthma & Lung UK, titled "On the edge: how inequality affects people with asthma,"1. reveals those in deprived communities face both a higher prevalence of asthma and higher likelihood of hospitalisation. The report calls for the promotion of self-management in asthma but recognises the challenges in embedding effective self-management practices in groups with low health literacy. myAsthma, designed and developed by my mhealth, offers a self-management platform for individuals living with adult asthma, and includes expert education and inhaler technique training and much more. myAsthma has been designed to support improved health literacy, drive patient empowerment to achieve greater disease control and ultimately help reduce the frequency of exacerbations and unplanned healthcare utilisation. The results from the project were promising and have supported the case to extend the implementation across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICS. Dr Sripat Pai, GP Clinical Lead, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System comments: "myAsthma provides our local people with asthma with the tools they need to self-manage more effectively and clinicians with a way to remotely monitor, manage and support their patients in an efficient way. The results of this pilot study have been extremely encouraging, particularly in our more deprived communities, and we look forward to seeing the impact the myAsthma App will bring once available for our wider population.” With the deployment of the myAsthma app underway across the region, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are poised to lead the way in tackling asthma health inequalities and empower their asthma population. Supporting the implementation and rollout of the app, NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough have the support of the my mhealth Digital Health Advisers, who can provide workforce resource whilst driving digital literacy and inclusion. If you are interested in replicating the success of myAsthma in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough in your own service, please get in touch www.mymhealth.com/contact-us References: 1 . https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-03/auk-health-inequalities-final.pdf
By 22 Sept, 2023 07 Aug, 2024
This collaboration extends access to the my mhealth platform to support patients living with COPD, heart disease, and asthma, while also maintaining its support for individuals living with diabetes. The myCOPD, myAsthma, myDiabetes and myHeart apps all form part of the my mhealth digital hub, a digital therapeutic platform that provides patients with tailored, evidence-based digital interventions which improve health outcomes and reduce health service dependence. The digital hub features range from education, condition-specific intervention to rehabilitation and much more. The NHS Long Term Plan prioritises the establishment of personalised care as the norm, and promoting supported self-management is an integral part of this dedication. My mhealth’s digital hub platform is designed to make the ambitions of the Long Term Plan a reality. Through the clinical dashboards, the my mhealth platform will enable clinical teams to deliver supported self-management, track an individual patient’s response to treatment, and assess the needs of the patients and services at a population scale. These insights will, in turn, help Kent & Medway to further optimise their service delivery and prioritise care. Head of Customer Success for my mhealth, Jane Stokes comments: “We are delighted to witness the ongoing success of myDiabetes in Kent & Medway. By extending provision to patients living with asthma, COPD and cardiovascular disease, we are creating a great opportunity to help services to empower patients in their self-management, to improve their condition control and optimise their health care utilisation. We are proud to be a part of Kent’s digital transformation journey”. Ian Butcher, Senior Programme Manager & Pride Network Co-Chair Cardiovascular, Network NHS Kent & Medway adds: “All of us at Kent & Medway ICB have been delighted to witness the positive adoption of the myDiabetes self-management platform. As myDiabetes continues to prove a real success to our patients, our digital transformation journey naturally led us to collaborate as an ICB and expand these benefits to individuals dealing with Heart Disease, Asthma, and COPD. With this expansion we strive to empower an increasing number of patients throughout our region, fostering their confidence and enhancing their sense of control when it comes to their management of their long-term condition". If you want to find out more about how the my mhealth platform can support the ambitions of your health service please get in touch here, or call us on 0044 (0)1202 299 583.
By 20 May, 2023 07 Aug, 2024
myCOPD offers COPD patients the potential to manage their condition remotely, reducing the need for frequent medical visits and hospital admissions. The project aims to build capacity in both primary and secondary care settings and improve patient outcomes. The funding, provided through the SBRI Phase 3 grant, aims to explore the implementation of myCOPD, a digital therapeutic developed by my mhealth Limited, in two regions of the NHS with diverse populations and challenges. Setting 1- Acute Setting- North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust In North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust we will assess the value of using myCOPD in patients admitted to hospital with an exacerbation and its ability to help prevent readmissions. The primary outcome is to explore whether myCOPD supports patients to self-manage at home with clinical oversight reducing the risk of hospital readmission as part of the respiratory discharge bundle. Hospital readmission rates for patients with COPD over 12- months following discharge with change in annualised hospitalisation will be collected for those using myCOPD and those who choose not to. Data relating to each patient’s admissions during the 12 months prior to enrolment will also be collected. Secondary outcomes include benefits to the acute workforce, healthcare utilisation, welfare and quality of life scores, environmental social benefit, myCOPD app usage and usage feedback. Setting 2- Pulmonary Rehabilitation- Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust In Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust we will work with local services to provide 'digital-PR' to isolated communities and increase the capacity and access to specialist support for self-management. The primary outcome is to explore whether using a digital blended approach increases PR delivery and completion rates with improved outcome measures. The total number of patients who were offered, started and completed PR using myCOPD to support a menu-based approach will be collected. The uptake rate, completion rate and level of completion (if not 100%) will also be analysed. Secondary outcomes include admission data, healthcare resource utilisation, welfare and quality of life scores, myCOPD app usage and usage feedback. Full the full project brief please click here- https://www.weahsn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PROPEL-myCOPD_Project-Brief.pdf
By 5 Apr, 2023 07 Aug, 2024
We are delighted to have been shortlisted in the Health Tech World Award for “Most Improved Patient Outcomes” The award ceremony was a highly competitive event, celebrating the brightest stars in health tech and we are honoured to be among other companies that are passionate about health tech. This recognition underscores the quality, diversity, and dynamism of our sector, and we take great pride in being a part of it. We were particularly delighted to receive an honourable mention, which specifically recognized the scalability and evidence behind our platform. Scalability is a crucial aspect of any health tech solution. The my mhealth digital therapeutic platform was designed with scalability in mind, to enable implementation across various healthcare settings, reaching a wide range of patients and healthcare providers across multiple long term conditions. At my mhealth, we strive to make sure our digital therapeutics are evidence based and deliver the expected outcomes. Our dedicated research team has undertaken a number of clinical trials and real-world studies to ensure the platform is effective and able to support health services and patients. To learn more about the evidence supporting the my mhealth digital platform, please visit www.mymhealth.com/studies Being recognized for our efforts to improve patient outcomes is a testament to our commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that benefit patients and healthcare providers. We believe that our platform has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry, and we are committed to playing our part in this transformation, improving patient outcomes, and changing healthcare for the better. Thank you to the judges and congratulations to all the winners and finalists.
By 24 Mar, 2023 07 Aug, 2024
The my mhealth platform for long-term conditions is designed to enhance service delivery, supporting improved patient outcomes, increased patient access and engagement, resulting in improved use of healthcare resources. Founded in 2012 by two respiratory physicians, Dr Simon Bourne and Professor Tom Wilkinson set out to provide a comprehensive platform for managing respiratory conditions, to reach more patients and deliver quality care at scale. Since then, the platform has rapidly expanded to cover four major long term conditions; Asthma, COPD, diabetes and heart disease. What was the inspiration behind the my mhealth platform? Dr Simon Bourne saw the potential digital could have in his own work. “I was a respiratory consultant at the time in Southampton running the community COPD team. It became clear early that the service did not have the capacity to deliver expert care to all 6000 people diagnosed with that condition in the city. I have always been interested in tech and websites and saw this as a way of reaching a much larger population, as long as we could prove the standard of service was at least equal to a face-face intervention. So we launched my mhealth limited at Southampton Science Park, and with funding from the SBRI, built and trialled the world’s first digital therapeutic for patients with COPD”. Similarly, drawing on his own experience, Professor Tom Wilkinson comments “As a clinician caring for patients with chronic lung conditions it was clear that many patients weren’t receiving the key aspects of care they required to optimise their health. Our NHS team was expert but small and there was not enough capacity to support every patient when they needed it. The inspiration for our first app myCOPD were the patients who had become truly expert in managing their own condition, understood what to do and when to reach for help. The my mhealth platform was developed to support and empower everyone to self-manage effectively and the drive to spread that across the NHS for all patients has been the key to our progress.” What does this achievement mean? "Reaching the milestone of 100,000 registered users not only indicates a growing demand for innovative healthcare solutions but is also a testament to the company's unwavering dedication to transforming healthcare by providing cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and healthcare providers." Commenting on the journey, Professor Tom Wilkinson said: “By any standards this is a remarkable achievement which everyone in the company, our clinical partners and collaborators should be proud of. 10 years ago, Simon and I imagined that if we developed and tested digital therapeutics in the right way we could support more patients than we ever could using conventional models of care. That vision is now a reality. A clinician can see 10-20 patients in a clinic- and may get to review a patient every six months or more. With the my mhealth platform we can help support 100,000 users daily and that number is growing exponentially now. That’s a lifetime of a practitioner’s positive clinical impact delivered everyday of the year- which is such a great outcome.” Dr Simon Bourne shares his thoughts: “This is a huge milestone in the history of digital therapeutics. We knew that the digital therapeutics, once in the hands of patients could improve the outcomes and symptoms of patients, and once a patient was invited to download the app, activation and engagement was excellent. The problem to solve was, how do we get this to patients with a confirmed diagnosis of the condition. It took us a while to develop the solutions with NHS partners that would enable us to scale to more than 100,000 users. The key was the development of a new role, known as a digital health adviser, who work between the digital therapeutic, the patient and the service to drive uptake and engagement”. What’s next for my mhealth? The company is well positioned to continue leading the way in digital therapeutics and making a positive impact on the lives of many worldwide. “We are deploying our digital therapeutics for long-term conditions now across more ICB footprints this year. Working with NHS partners we can now scale this to improve outcomes of patients, and within current budget constraints. We are planning our US launch, initially with myCOPD and translating our myHeart app with European clinical teams to enter clinical trials soon. With NIHR funding, through the NHSx AI awards we are also investigating other solutions to improve the outcomes of patients with COPD”. Said Dr Simon Bourne. Looking to the future, Professor Tom Wilkinson comments “The real impacts of our work are ahead- we are rapidly growing our user base, working with more and more clinical teams and synergistically driving an evolution into digitally enhanced care at a time the NHS really needs it. Excitingly are expanding overseas to India, the US and into Europe, building our evidence base for efficacy and value as we go. For a decade we have been at the vanguard of digital therapeutic development and delivery and in another 10 years we aim to be a major contributor to improvements in global health”.
By 31 Jan, 2023 25 Jul, 2024
SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative initiative, in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and Asthma + Lung UK, has selected my mhealth Limited as one of their grant recipients to support respiratory patients. The SBRI Healthcare ‘Competition 21, Phase 3 for Real-world Testing and Implementation: Respiratory Diseases’ identifies the most promising innovations that will help the NHS continue to evolve, meet more patient needs whilst addressing some of the biggest healthcare challenges; one of which is respiratory diseases. With up to half of all hospital beds being occupied by patients with respiratory illnesses, supporting discharges, preventing disease exacerbations and readmissions is key to ensuring the NHS can manage the huge number of patients needing help. myCOPD, a digital therapeutic from my mhealth, can support this. The funding from SBRI Healthcare will be used to support real-world testing and implementation of my mhealth's platform in respiratory care pathways across the UK. The goal of the project is to measure the clinical and economic benefits of digital therapeutics in respiratory care, which will help to pave the way for widespread adoption across the NHS. "We are thrilled to have been awarded this funding by SBRI Healthcare, which will allow us to accelerate the adoption of our digital therapeutic platform in the UK. We believe that our platform has the potential to revolutionize respiratory care management" said Professor Tom Wilkinson, Professor & Honorary NHS Consultant Respiratory Medicine Southampton University Faculty of Medicine and my mhealth's Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder. "myCOPD is a powerful tool and we are excited to work with healthcare providers in Bristol and Cornwall to demonstrate its impact on patient outcomes and reduce the burden on the NHS. We would like to thank the West of England AHSN for their support throughout the funding process and look forward to working with the NHS and other healthcare partners to bring our digital therapeutic platform to more patients across the UK. The implementation of myCOPD into respiratory care pathways will be explored in two distinct UK regions, Bristol & Cornwall." Cheryl Scott, Industry and Innovation Lead at the West of England AHSN added: "We’re delighted that my mhealth has been successful in securing this funding in order to support people with respiratory diseases and our health and care delivery partners in the West of England. We continue to provide support and look forward to seeing the impacts of the research study.” my mhealth is also working with NICE to develop the evidence and health economic model required to support the national roll out of my COPD. If you want to find out more about this project or learn how myCOPD can help your respiratory patients, please get in touch here. Find out more. About my mhealth: Our mission is to change healthcare forever. We do this by empowering patients and clinical teams to manage long-term conditions using digital therapeutics, delivered remotely at a fraction of the traditional cost to patients with Asthma, COPD, Diabetes and Heart Disease. Our digital therapeutics are designed to enhance service delivery, supporting improved patient outcomes, increased patient access and engagement, resulting in improved use of NHS resources. This work was commissioned and funded by SBRI Healthcare. SBRI Healthcare is an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs). The views expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of SBRI Healthcare or its stakeholders.
By 23 November, 2022 25 Jul, 2024
The NHS is facing unprecedented pressures this winter, and it is anticipated that patients with respiratory disease may occupy up to half of all hospital beds. It is therefore vital that the management of patients with Severe Asthma, who are at high risk of hospitalisation, is optimised. In this context, the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), Academic Health Sciences Network (AHSN), my mhealth Limited and University Hospitals Southampton (UHS) are pleased to announce the launch of myAsthma Biologic, an extension to my mhealth’s existing myAsthma product, which will support 10,000 patients with severe asthma on biologic therapy across the United Kingdom. Over the last few years, the administration of biologic therapy has moved from the clinic, into the home. This is far more convenient for patients, who in many cases had to travel hundreds of miles to receive their treatment because it is only offered in a few specialist centres. myAsthma Biologic was commissioned as part of the NHS AAC Rapid Uptake Products programme, which aims to improve access to biologic therapies by improving pathways and current practices to achieve timely specialist patient care. The digital therapeutic supports patients in managing their asthma, and their clinical teams in managing and monitoring them remotely. This exciting new product will also facilitate standardised and timely collection of clinical data through automated upload to the national severe asthma registry. Through the programme, sites currently inputting data in the severe asthma registry and prescribing asthma biologics will have access to myAsthma Biologic. Simon Bourne, Company President at my mhealth comments: “As a respiratory focussed digital therapeutics company, we are honoured to have been chosen to roll out our product nationally to better support patients on biologics, who are living with Severe Asthma. We have already seen the huge potential of digital therapeutics to improve patients’ symptoms and quality of life and deliver efficiencies across primary and community health care services, and look forward to working with the specialist severe asthma centres across the UK." Professor James Dodd, clinical lead North Bristol’s complex airways service added: “The Bristol severe Asthma service is delighted to be part of this national project to adopt and evaluate the myAsthma Biologic App. With the growing number of highly effective monoclonal antibody therapies, and the growing demand on our services, we believe that digital therapeutics like myAsthma Biologic will be increasingly important. Digital innovation has the potential to complement our dedicated multi-disciplinary team to increase capacity and enhance the support patients need to keep them well.” About my mhealth my mhealth’s digital therapeutics have been prescribed to over 90,000 patients with chronic conditions, resulting in reduced morbidity and hospital admissions. It serves patients across a range of long-term conditions, including COPD, asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Real world and clinical trial evidence demonstrates the efficacy of digital interventions on the my mhealth platform. For more information on my mhealth, visit www.mymhealth.com.
By 13 Oct, 2022 25 Jul, 2024
The NHS is facing continuing pressures with waiting lists at an all-time high(1). The increasing demand reaches across the health system affecting millions of patients and staff, recently exacerbated by the pandemic(2). GP practices across the UK continue to struggle with high demand and a reduction in workforce resulting in a knock-on effect for patients(3). Additionally, NHS hospital trusts are experiencing a backlog of patients leading to long waiting times and overdue appointments(4). Those who suffer from a long-term health condition such as heart disease, diabetes and respiratory disease who require regular health reviews are unlikely to be receiving the support they need meaning, for the most part, they must manage their health themselves. However, without the skills, knowledge and confidence to self-manage, their health may be at greater risk. Digital health can provide patients and clinicians with an additional tool to create a supported self-management process(5), but many challenges exist with digital implementation on an already overstretched health service. The digital revolution in healthcare. Digital health interventions such as wellness, self-care and activity apps have been shown to promote healthy behaviours such as smoking cessation, reduced alcohol intake, support with exercise, and eating a healthy diet(6). Furthermore, recent evidence shows they can improve outcomes for patients with long-term conditions(6)(7)(8)(9), and importantly, they can improve accessibility to health-related information. Pre-pandemic the uptake of digital health technologies was slow(2)(10), however with the emergence of COVID-19, they became an immediate necessity and digital health adoption was greatly accelerated within healthcare service delivery(11)(12). NHS Digital reported a 111% usage increase in NHS app registrations(13). Despite digital health interventions offering numerous benefits, a great challenge is promoting uptake and engagement(14)(15)(16). Making an App available to clinical teams and patients is unlikely to be enough to drive adoption and engagement. Instead, when deploying a solution, it’s imperative that the local needs of healthcare teams and their patients are considered carefully and a personal approach is taken. To ensure healthcare teams receive the necessary support to implement digital self-management apps with a personal touch, my mhealth created the Digital Health Adviser (DHA). The Digital Health Adviser. my mhealth recognised there was a need to create person-centred digital app delivery and support which led to the development of the DHA. By bringing together the technology and the needs of the service the perceived ‘heavy lift’ challenge of a digital transformation project has been reduced.This role works in partnership with my mhealth and the healthcare provider using an honorary contract. The healthcare team provides them with a list of patients to contact and offer the app(s). Those patients who would like to use the app(s) are offered guidance on how to use and are signposted to content related to goals set by the clinical teams. Similarly, the DHA’s support clinicians to engage with the technology, providing them with the skills to support, enhance and scale their service.
By 22 Sep, 2022 25 Jul, 2024
CAMBRIDGE UK, September 22, 2022. my mhealth, a leading Digital Therapeutics (DTx) company based in the UK, is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. David Pettigrew as CEO. David will guide the organisation in its mission to improve the quality of care for people with long term conditions, through digital health. Having spent time in the US successfully growing a healthcare technology business for a UK-based company, David is ideally placed to lead my mhealth’s expansion into the US market. Dr. Pettigrew has a broad and extensive experience in the digital health industry. Throughout his 17 year career, he has been responsible for managing large and complex digital health product development projects, building new organisational capabilities and for overall business delivery. He was an early pioneer in developing FDA-regulated smartphone apps. Most recently, he led Sagentia, an AIM-listed international technology and product development business, and was part of BrightInsight’s leadership team, focusing on building DTx solutions for the medtech and pharmaceutical industry. David holds a DPhil in Molecular Biophysics from the University of Oxford. David replaces the founder Simon Bourne, who is transitioning to President and will continue to take an active interest in developing my mhealth’s next generation AI capabilities. Bourne commented: "When I co-founded my mhealth over 10 years ago we set out to transform healthcare using digital platforms. Back then this was through a simple website developed to support COPD patients. We never imagined back then how much this simple tool would transform the lives of patients. Following successful randomised clinical trials and NHS National Innovation Accelerator adoption, my mhealth has supported over 80,000 patients and multiple long-term conditions across the UK. During the pandemic, we delivered access to digital rehabilitation, when most services had to close. We are also proud of the contribution we made in easing capacity pressures in the NHS through our COVID virtual ward remote monitoring solution. Today marks an important event in our history, as I hand over the CEO role to David Pettigrew. David has a proven track record, and having worked with him over the last 5 months in his role as Chief Strategy Officer, I have every confidence he will take my mhealth to the next level." Pettigrew stated " Having spent 17 years developing DTx solutions, I can confidently say that no other company has been as successful as my mhealth in building such a vast and engaged user base. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon and the team for all their hard work to bring the company to where it is today. I’m honoured to be taking on the responsibility of leading my mhealth in the next stage of its journey, which will focus on launching in the US and beyond, expanding our relationship with the NHS and extending our data and clinical trial partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry. Our primary mission will continue to be improving the lives of patients with long term conditions everywhere." About my mhealth my mhealth’s digital therapeutics have been prescribed to over 80,000 patients with chronic conditions, resulting in reduced morbidity and hospital admissions. It serves patients across a range of long term conditions, including COPD, asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Our flagship product, myCOPD, was the exclusive digital therapeutic deployed by the UK’s NHS to deliver pulmonary rehabilitation during the pandemic, when in person care was practically inaccessible. Real world and clinical trial evidence demonstrates the efficacy of digital interventions on the my mhealth platform. For more information on my mhealth, visit www.mymhealth.com.
By 07 Apr, 2022 25 Jul, 2024
Read more on Nature.
By 10 March, 2022 25 Jul, 2024
As Pilot 4, my mhealth and the University of Southampton collaborated to develop a machine learning model to predict and manage worsening of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), termed exacerbation. Results demonstrated that self-reported COPD data, using a digital health app, can be used to identify users at risk of exacerbation within 3 days with moderate discriminative ability Prediction of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbation Events by Using Patient Self-reported Data in a Digital Health App: Statistical Evaluation and Machine Learning Approach. BigMedilytics (Big Data for Medical Analytics) was the largest EU-funded initiative to transform the region’s healthcare sector. Its aim was to enhance patient outcomes and increase productivity in the health sector by applying big data technologies to complex datasets while ensuring security and privacy of personal data. Twelve pilots across eight countries, more than 11 million healthcare records, and data from other sectors including insurance and public bodies addressed three themes: Population Health and Chronic Disease Management, Oncology and Industrialization of Healthcare Services; and covered the entire Healthcare Continuum from Prevention to Diagnosis, Treatment and Home Care. As Pilot 4, my mhealth and the University of Southampton collaborated to develop a machine learning model to predict and manage worsening of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), termed exacerbation. Using the cloud-based digital health application (app) myCOPD, analysis explored several in-app reported variables including medication usage, COPD assessment test scores, and symptom scores. This led to the development of both heuristic and machine learning models. Results demonstrated that self-reported COPD data, using a digital health app, can be used to identify users at risk of exacerbation within 3 days with moderate discriminative ability (AUROC 0.727, 95% CI 0.720-0.735). Further research utilizing additional linked data (particularly from medical devices such as smart inhalers, physiological monitoring sensors, and environmental sensors) are expected to increase the accuracy of these models. Data self-reported to health care apps designed to remotely monitor patients with COPD can be used to predict acute exacerbation events with moderate performance. This could increase personalization of care by allowing pre-emptive action to be taken to mitigate the risk of future exacerbation events. With the Health and Social Care Secretary setting a target for 4 million to benefit from personalised care by March 2024, leveraging the data collected by these apps in prognostic models could provide increased personalization of care by allowing pre-emptive action to be taken to mitigate the risk of future exacerbation events Findings have been published in the JMIR Medical Informatics: ©Francis P Chmiel, Dan K Burns, John Brian Pickering, Alison Blythin, Thomas MA Wilkinson, Michael J Boniface. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics ( https://medinform.jmir.org/2022/3/e26499 ), 21.03.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Informatics, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication onhttps://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. About my mhealth my mhealth’s digital therapeutics have been prescribed to over 90,000 patients with chronic conditions, resulting in reduced morbidity and hospital admissions. It serves patients across a range of long-term conditions, including COPD, asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Real world and clinical trial evidence demonstrates the efficacy of digital interventions on the my mhealth platform. For more information on my mhealth, visit www.mymhealth.com.
By 21 Nov, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
Evaluation of myCOPD - a positive population health management approach to the remote monitoring of patients with COPD. The study showed a positive uptake and usage with myCOPD, demonstrating improvement in CAT scores. Socioeconomic factors did not appear to negatively influence app activation. See results from Dorset Intelligence and Insight Service (DiiS) and my mhealth collaboration, supporting the remote monitoring of patients with COPD. About my mhealth my mhealth’s digital therapeutics have been prescribed to over 90,000 patients with chronic conditions, resulting in reduced morbidity and hospital admissions. It serves patients across a range of long-term conditions, including COPD, asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Real world and clinical trial evidence demonstrates the efficacy of digital interventions on the my mhealth platform. For more information on my mhealth, visit www.mymhealth.com.
By 17 Nov, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
A new partnership between Vitality and Bournemouth-based digital healthcare pioneer my mhealth offers Vitality members access to an entire suite of cutting-edge digital therapeutics designed to manage long-term health conditions. Vitality members will receive a 50% discount on annual subscriptions to any of the my mhealth apps: myCOPD, myDiabetes, myHeart, myAsthma and, myOp. Each app provides members with a unique and tailored evidence-based digital intervention that's proven to improve health outcomes using a broad range of self-management tools including medicine optimisation, rehabilitation, education, risk-factor modification, condition-specific interventions, care planning and more. Commenting on the partnership, Vitality's Head of Healthcare Strategy, Bianca Grotepass said: "There has been an increase in the number of digital therapeutics that people can use to take control of their long-term health conditions, and it’s clear that by working with my mhealth we can now offer our members access to the tools that enable them to do just that." "By using clinically proven digital therapeutics such as myCOPD and myHeart, Vitality members can improve their quality of life by tracking their symptoms, understanding their condition and learning how to better manage their health." Simon Bourne, CEO of my mhealth added: "Vitality’s ambition to be a force for social good and empower their members to develop long-term healthy habits resonates with our own ambitions to change healthcare forever. We’re proud to be able to offer Vitality members another platform that will help them make a real difference to their quality of life." If you want to find out how my mhealth can help you, please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 4 Oct, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
The NHSX Innovation Development Team has launched the Digital Health Partnership Award. This has been created to help NHS organisations in England to bid for funding to accelerate the adoption of digital health technologies to support patients with long term conditions focusing on supporting people at home. The Award brings together partners critical to the scaling of digital health technology. my mhealth have partnered with North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS), Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of North Midlands NHS Trust to secure funding from NHSX that will enable the adoption of myOp, an app that supports the prehabilitation of patients prior to elective surgery, and myCOPD, a digital therapeutic for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). COPD Self-management myCOPD helps people living with COPD to perfect their inhaler technique with easy-to-follow inhaler videos and helps them to manage their COPD using a variety of interventions such as online pulmonary rehabilitation classes. To promote digital healthcare North Bristol NHS Trust are introducing myCOPD to patients with COPD. This will support patients who have been admitted to hospital with their COPD, enhancing their recovery at home and reducing their risk of readmission. Patient activation and adoption will be analysed by University of Bath, and the West of England AHSN will report on the outcomes, benefits, and evidence of impact realisation. Surgical Prehabilitation myOp is a universal intervention which gives people waiting for elective surgery the tools they need to prepare and recover faster. myOp includes a series of screening tools which clinicians can use to rapidly risk stratify and identify patients at a higher risk of complications. These patients can then be supported with targeted support and interventions. UHS will deliver this intervention to patients undergoing certain types of surgery. The aim is to initially support patients to use technology to prepare for surgery and improve their physical and mental health. Results will be analysed by UHS alongside Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of North Midlands NHS Trust my mhealth CEO Simon Bourne commented, "We’ve witnessed digital services like myCOPD and myOp achieve great adoption across the UK and thanks to the funding provided by the Digital Health Partnership Award digital therapeutics will be available to even more people living with long-term conditions or waiting for surgery." Dr Harry Thirkettle, the mind behind of myOp added, "Up to 30% of surgical patients experience some form of complication after surgery, leading to increased healthcare costs and a longer stay in hospital for the patient. With Covid-19 leading to huge waiting lists and a backlog of elective surgery, it's more important than ever that we find ways to improve efficiency, reduce complications and length of stay. A variety of prehabilitation interventions can reduce complication rates by up to 50%. We’ve combined these interventions into a single app and we’re confident that with this award, we’ll be able to support many more people from decision to operate to full recovery." If you want to find out more about this award or how myOp and myCOPD can help your patients or if you need support with an NHSX award application to support your health service's digital transformation, please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 9 Sep, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
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 24 June, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
The Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award aims to benefit patients by combining the power of artificial intelligence with the expertise of the NHS to improve health and care outcomes. my mhealth Limited and the University of Southampton have been announced as a winner of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award. The design of mySmartCOPD was one of nine projects to achieve funding at Phase 2 in Round 2 of the programme. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious yet common disease affecting the lungs. Patients with COPD often experience ‘exacerbation events’ which are acute worsening of symptoms that frequently lead to hospitalisation. The development of mySmartCOPD aims to use machine-learning and artificial intelligence to predict exacerbations several days in advance and transform person-centred COPD management. Preventing exacerbations is essential to promote health, and reduce the burden on patients and the NHS. mySmartCOPD will be based on the myCOPD self-management application which is currently used by many NHS clinical services and patients. It will deliver a new clinical COPD management model using machine learning for early personalised prediction of exacerbation and intervention. This will be integrated into myCOPD and used to establish clinical prototypes based on artificial intelligence predictors. Personalised alerts will be sent to patients and clinicians to work towards preventing an exacerbation. mySmartCOPD aims to support patients to be aware and understand their own COPD, and help them to take action to prevent an exacerbation event leading to less emergency appointments and admissions to hospital. The Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award aims to benefit patients by combining the power of artificial intelligence with the expertise of the NHS to improve health and care outcomes. The award is making £140 million available over four years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of technologies most likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. The award is one of the programmes of the NHS AI Lab at NHSX and is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) in partnership with the NIHR. Each round of the Award supports technologies at different levels of maturity, targeting health and care improvements where they are needed most, by both patients and NHS staff. The AI in Health and Care Award is increasing the impact of AI systems in helping to solve both clinical and operational challenges across the NHS, including reducing waiting times, improving early diagnosis and saving staff time. It will speed up the most promising technologies through the regulatory process by building an evidence base to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of artificial intelligence in health and care. Co-founder of my mhealth Limited and Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Tom Wilkinson said: "This award recognises the cutting edge expertise of mymhealth and the University of Southampton and will enable us to develop predictive and personalised tools which will transform outcomes for some of our most vulnerable patients. It is vital that the revolution in digital healthcare is harnessed for all and this is the next chapter in the success of myCOPD as one of the first nationally scaled digital solutions in the NHS." University of Southampton, Professor Michael Boniface said: "Our research has demonstrated that machine learning can predict COPD exacerbation several days in advance. Such predictions will transform clinical models, empower patients and improve quality of life. Trust in AI and acceptance of AI supported disease management will be essential, and by engaging people living with COPD through co-design, mySmartCOPD will not only demonstrate safety and reliability but will also ensure solutions are engaging, effective and address diverse needs." Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "Through our NHS AI Lab we're now backing a new generation of ground-breaking but practical solutions to some of the biggest challenges in healthcare." Matthew Gould, chief executive of NHSX, said: "These trials are making the AI revolution a reality for patients. Today’s award winners will push NHS AI into new areas. The possibilities are immense. This work will help ensure the NHS is a world leader in safe use of AI in health and care." If you want to find out more about this award or how myCOPD can help your patients please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 18 Jun, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
Since 2008, the Future Digital Awards have been awarded to tech companies at the forefront of their respective fields: companies that deliver imaginative, innovative products or services that have the potential to disrupt their ecosystems and provide significant benefits to their target audience. This year's Judges’ Choice for Excellence in Digital Health Innovation has been awarded to my mhealth in recognition of the impact of their cutting edge technologies, including Digital Therapeutics, Telemedicine and Remote Health. Simon Bourne, CEO and co-founder said: “I am proud of the hard work the entire team at my mhealth has put into building our digital therapeutic platform and we’re grateful to the judges for recognising the dedication to our mission to change healthcare forever. Our platform has helped many thousands of people living with COPD, asthma, diabetes and cardiac disease, and in the last 12 months we’ve not only deployed within services across the UK but also on the island of Jersey and New Zealand. To be recognised as an innovator by the Future Digital Awards and to be counted as winners alongside the likes of Teladoc and Google is a privilege.” Entries are initially assessed by a Juniper Research analyst panel, which then draws up a shortlist of potential winners based on a number of criteria, including: • Product Innovation • Features and Benefits • Product Partnerships • Certification & Compliance • Future Business Prospects These shortlists are then assessed and scored according to a rigorous set of criteria and verified by our team of experts. At the end of this process, final winners are agreed upon and confirmed by the Juniper Research judging panel. The Judges' Choice category is not open to nominations - the winners of these categories are hand-picked by our Judges Panel and represent the very best of the best in their category. If you’d like to find out more about the awarding my mhealth digital therapeutic platform for COPD, diabetes, asthma and cardiac disease get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 10 May, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
Today my mhealth announces its successful roll-out of their NHS-approved diabetes digital therapeutic platform, myDiabetes, as 100,000 diabetes patients and their clinical services in Kent and Medway can now access the numerous health care benefits and better manage their conditions from the free app. Since the much-anticipated launch of the roll-out in early April 2021, already over 400 patients have been given access to the myDiabetes platform, with these patients accessing more than 350 individual educational sessions. In a complete change in the way patients are able to interact with their clinician, patients are given access by their health professional and are then asked to fill in their details such as their blood glucose levels or BMI to support the delivery of the service. This will directly improve patient care by providing greater accessibility to their most important healthcare information. With diabetes affecting around 1 in 14 people (4.8 million) in the UK1, it’s crucial that the support services bring patients and their clinician closer together while also giving patients greater control over their own healthcare. The myDiabetes app has been designed to empower patients in self-management of their condition with a user-friendly digital programme that offers quick and easy access on smart phones, tablets and computers from anywhere, at any time. In addition, the in-app content is specifically tailored to enable patients to monitor their blood glucose, HbA1C, and other risk factors and access to an expert educational programme allows them to learn about their conditions with the aim of reducing their risk of serious long-term complications. This project will also generate a great deal of invaluable insights into the needs of the patients and how best to support them in the future. Global Transformation Lead for my mhealth, Ian Thompson said: "Diabetes education is a core component of a patients care. The more an individual knows about their diabetes, the more capable they are to manage their condition and the risks of developing further complications. It’s exciting for us to be working closely with multiple diabetes teams throughout the Kent & Medway area; for all of us involved we feel it is the perfect time for the NHS to bring into services that digital element of care." Kent & Medway Diabetes & CVD Transformation and Development Manager, Ian Butcher commented: "All of us here at the CCG alongside the Paul Carr Diabetes Trust feel this is a really fantastic step forward for people living with Diabetes in Kent. It’s important that we continue to evolve services to ensure we make the best care available. myDiabetes provides an easy-to-use digital self-management tool, with access to an educational programme, targeted evidence-based information and advice. It is designed to complement our existing diabetes services and gives all who use it digital access to tools to better manage their condition for the general improvement of their health and wellbeing." Gary Fagg MBE, Chairman of the Paula Carr Diabetes Trust commented: “The Paula Carr Diabetes Trust are proud to be investing in a partnership with Kent & Medway CCG and my mhealth at this very important time for the NHS. We know first-hand the challenges diabetes patients have in accessing services. Providing the diabetes digital platform, myDiabetes, offers a significant breakthrough to the continuing education and access to services for our diabetes patients across the region." If you want to find out more about how myDiabetes can support your health service please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 28 April, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
NHS-approved digital therapeutics company, my mhealth, with 3 European collaborators, have been awarded a highly prestigious €2.5M Eurostars Grant for the development of their innovative project, CUOREMA. Eurostars is a European joint programme, co-funded from the national budgets of 36 EUREKA countries and by the European Union through Horizon 2020. As a UK funding body, Innovate UK will sponsor my mhealth Limited to develop part of its myHeart app to support cardiac rehabilitation in Europe. Together with three accomplished European partners; Ospedale Malcantonese (OSCAM) (Switzerland), Games for Health (The Netherlands) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) (Switzerland), the project aims to utilise the cardiac rehabilitation element of the myHeart app and incorporate biofeedback, intelligent algorithms and gamification features. During the three years of planning and development, the platform will be formally researched in the UK and several European countries through formal clinical trials. The CUOREMA project will focus on developing a new, patient-centred and intelligent cardiac rehabilitation support system. The scalable, customisable, and flexible technology will provide a new systematic method of social and biological feedback from wearable devices, the app will include built-in behaviour change support systems, with mixed reality and immersive technology to improve medical adherence and clinical outcomes. The Eurostars Programme is a funding and support programme, aimed at R&D-performing SMEs that wish to redeem the benefits that come with international collaboration. The application process is hugely competitive, with 506 applications submitted from across 36 countries. The evaluation process considers three key areas for assessment; Quality, Impact and Excellence. As the project lead, my mhealth are clinical and technological experts in digital healthcare applications for long-term conditions, with COPD as a primary area of focus. Their expertise in this arena, and vision and experience in digital therapeutics was recognised by the judging panel. In particular the project achieved the highest scores in the Innovation & R&D category. In following strict guidelines the app will be compatible for use across the European Union, once developed the app content will be available in five languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Spanish. Dr. Simon Bourne, Chief Executive Officer of my mhealth: “We are thrilled to be partnering with such talented and diverse teams on this innovative and important project over the next few years. Each organisation brings a very unique perspective to the table, allowing for a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to tackling heart health. I am extremely passionate about digital health and this has the potential to change many lives for the better, helping us transform cardiac rehabilitation for patients across Europe.” About my mhealth: Our mission is to change healthcare forever. We do this by empowering patients and clinical teams to manage long-term conditions using digital therapeutics, delivered remotely at a fraction of the traditional cost to patients with Asthma, COPD, COVID-19, Diabetes and Heart Disease. Founded by two NHS medical consultants to deliver evidence-based interventions using software and applications to patients, we developed the UK’s first NHS-approved digital platform. My mhealth delivered over 275,000 rehabilitation and education sessions during 2020 to patients with respiratory and cardiac conditions. Each of our apps, including myCOPD, myAsthma, myDiabetes and myHeart, have been developed with clinical experts in their field to provide patients with the knowledge and support to manage their conditions. These self-management apps offer a unique, customised, and personalised experience for patients and they can be accessed and used on almost any device, from smartphones to smart TV’s. We are pioneering a new approach to dispersed healthcare provision, enabling remote monitoring, and medication management which delivers better outcomes, improved patient engagement and decreases the burden on the NHS. About Games for Health: Games for Health is a research & design driven SME, based in the Netherlands with over 20 years’ experience application design based on playful intelligence for healthcare and other markets. Playful intelligence allows for a desired change in behaviour among individuals, as well as larger groups as it calls on the natural youthfulness of our desire to play. Being a specialist in this field, Games for Health has designed many applications for therapy adherence, anti-biotics prescriptions in the struggle to overcome anti-biotic resistance and lifestyle change in case of infertility problems for several leading pharmaceutical companies. In several European consortia it works on motivational strategies, e.g. for stress relief of elderly employees (mHealthINX), for the stimulation of physical activities in the younger population (Sugapas) and also on planetary health related topics like environmental influence on cardiopulmonary diseases (Expanse) and reversed logistics of e-waste. It’s most recent success is the Post-IC digital diary for the prevention or relief of the post intensive care syndrome, of major importance in times of Covid-19 (Post-icu.com). About Ospedale Malcantonese (OSCAM): The Ospedale Malcantonese is a non-profit organisation, established in 1928 thanks to the donation of Mr. Giuseppe Rossi of Castelrotto, officially inaugurated on 11 November 1928. The Ospedale Malcantonese is included in the hospital planning of the Canton Ticino (Switzerland). The Ospedale Malcantonese has a RAMI department (Acute Department of Minor Intensity), a psychiatry department and various outpatient services (Cardiology, Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy, Ergotherapy, Dietician, Radiology, First Aid, Psychology, Diabetology, Advice for smoke sessecion, Laboratory Analysis, Acupuncture, Abdominal and Vascular Ultrasound, Pulmonology, Social Assistance). The Ospedale Malcantonese is represented by Dr. Tania Odello (Senior Cardiologist of the Cardiology Service and of the Rehabilitation and Preventive Cardiology Service) and the CUOREMA Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Team, from which the name of the project originates from (www.cuorema.com). They will specialise in the clinical development of the CUOREMA App, the clinical study that will support the project and ethical supervision. About the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI): Dr. Francesca D. Faraci is the leader of the Bio-Signal Processing (BSP) research group of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) Department of Innovative Technologies (DTI). The research focuses on the optimisation and tailoring of advanced statistical and AI methods, to individualise clinical medicine for monitoring, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In the European project CUOREMA, SUPSI-DTI-BSP will be in charge of developing the bio-behavioural change support system. BSP researchers will build upon objective, subjective and contextual information about the patients; interpret the information considering the clinical and social individual characteristics and feed this information back into the system to enhance the adherence to CVR, also through gamification. Our biggest challenge is to develop algorithms that integrate different perspectives, ensuring clinical, social, psychological, technical, gamification and computational needs are taken into account. ALFAGAMMA and L.I.F.E. sponsors The project will benefit from the collaboration and support of the company ALFAGAMMA (www.alfagamma.ch), distributor and manufacturer of medical devices and with the company L.I.F.E. (www.x10y.com), manufacturer of advanced intelligent garments that will allow us to monitor our patients in an innovative way, even from a distance. If you want to find out more about this project or how myHeart can help your cardiac patients please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 27 Apr, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is one of the most clinically and cost-effective therapeutic interventions in cardiovascular disease management, reducing mortality and hospital admissions, whilst improving functional capacity and quality of life (1). The average number of patients who agree to be referred to CR in England is 50%, of whom 76% will go on to complete a programme (2). There are many reasons why people do not take up the offer, but one key factor is accessibility. NHS England has set a target for CR services to achieve an 85% uptake by 2028 (3). In support of achieving this target the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (BACPR) are calling for clinical services to consider alternative modes of delivery that maintain quality standards and patient outcomes, whilst providing greater flexibility (4). In 2004, the Dorset CR service first introduced a menu-based CR delivery model which provided patients with a choice of either traditional in-person or home-based CR programmes. By 2016-17 the team had achieved a 20% increase in patient participation equating to a 70% annual patient uptake. However, the team "felt that there was still an unmet need, particularly for those who felt too vulnerable to travel to a CR group or could not accommodate a CR session during the day due to work or care-giving responsibilities."
By 23 Mar, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
COVID has exposed the precarious position of local councils in the UK. Unprecedented financial strain, healthcare pressures, dwindling resources and increasing demands to meet annual targets are just a few of the issues that local councils must deal with. Read about how my mhealth have designed a solution that's proven to work. https://www.localgov.co.uk/Rebuilding-the-patient-care-backlog-with-digital-/52050
By 8 Mar, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
I n 2018, Southend University Hospital introduced myCOPD, a new menu-based pulmonary rehabilitation delivery model to provide options for patients who were unable to attend the traditional centre-based classes. myCOPD was designed to address the challenges faced with service capacity and completion rates. The Southend DEPR model is an exemplar of innovation which has demonstrated an ability to rise to increasing service demand, maintain service delivery quality and provide resilience in the face of unforeseen events, such as COVID-19. Read more on nhsx.nhs.co.uk
By 2 Mar, 2021 25 Jul, 2024
The rollout of my mhealth Unlimited in Jersey follows a pilot of over 200 patients in the cardiac, respiratory and diabetes departments of Health and Community Services. 60% of those taking part in the trial logged into the application every day. Read more on itv.com Video content from Government of Jersey
By 14 Dec, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
HAYA is a new integrated oncology care management platform for patients, clinicians and care centres developed in a partnership between AstraZeneca and my mhealth. HAYA enhances the delivery of care, and improve the outcomes of patients with cancer using digital health as a conduit for the remote management and monitoring of cancer therapies. HAYA through a single interface combines telemonitoring, teleconsultation and personalised support to give patients easier access to care and to help hospitals manage resources. For patients the app enables them to remotely report their symptoms and observations directly to their clinical teams and feel empowered with an individualised set of digital tools and accessible educational material. HAYA makes it simpler for patients and their clinical team to communicate using a combination of secure text messaging and video consultation services. These consultations are stored within the app so both the patient and clinical services can retrieve and refer to these consultations and care plans as necessary. For healthcare professionals the application makes the entire clinical record accessible in a single secure place, incorporating the entire co-scripted record of patient symptoms, treatments, observation, test results and consultations. The clinician dashboard supports remote monitoring of symptoms and observation of patients at a population level, enabling the early identification of issues that may require intervention. Although Initially developed for patients with lung cancer, HAYA will in the near future support the management of other cancers. If you want to find out more about HAYA or the my mhealth platform please get in touch here or call us on +44 (0)1202 299 583.
By 21 Oct, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
The body content of your post go es here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source. my mhealth build digital therapeutic apps that help thousands of patients to remotely self-manage long-term health conditions such as COPD, asthma, diabetes, heart disease and COVID-19. As a class 1 regulated medical device manufacturer, we are required by law to adhere to a user-centred design approach defined by the MHRA. Primarily, MHRA regulations are designed to ensure that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. That means designers and developers of apps like myCOPD and COVID-19 Virtual Ward must reduce the risk of any “user errors” which could potentially cause harm to a patient. We can do that by ensuring a user-centred design process is built into the way we make software by default: Product iteration and improvement throughout the life-cycle Post-market vigilance and surveillance of similar devices Human factors considerations that promote optimal clinical outcomes Even before MHRA, my mhealth apps had been designed with the end-user in mind, whether they were apps for a nurse, doctor, clinical manager or patient, our goal has always been to build tools that people want to use. By following a user-centred design process, our software has been optimised for usability and meets the highest accessibility standards, so patients of every skill level or physical ability can benefit. And that work continues.
By 25 Sept, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
We’ve created a selection of online CPD training courses to help you get the most from my mhealth apps and support patients in ways you might never have imagined. The my mhealth eLearning site is now live and open to all our customers. We cover every my mhealth condition app and give practical examples and case studies to help you get the most out of the platform. You can work through the courses at your own pace, watch video guides and read step-by-step instructions on everything from adding a patient to the platform or helping patients understand their self-management plan, through to connecting a blood glucose monitor to an app with Bluetooth. The courses include detailed how-to guides on the patient and clinician apps for each of the long-term conditions supported by my mhealth. We’ll walk you through the features and functionality, in short, easy-to-follow steps. Helping you to become an expert in no time at all. And if you’re looking for help with a particular feature you can use the search button at the top of this page to search for any keyword. What's more, you can access the training course on any computer, smartphone or tablet. All our courses are CPD accredited which means for every hour spent using the course, CPD points can be earned. With over 20 hours of material to work through, including multiple-choice quizzes to help test your knowledge, and content that's updated regularly, we're confident that you'll find lots of benefits with this prodigious new tool. Our courses and quizzes look great on desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones Courses for all long-term conditions on the my health platform are free and can be accessed at learn.mymhealth.com. In addition to the courses offered on the site, you'll also find case studies and real-world examples of success stories from health care professionals using the my mhealth platform. Giving you a deeper insight into how effective it can be when it's used properly and to its full potential. Remember, you get out what you put in - which means the more you know about the platform's features and capabilities, the more you can help your patients with their long-term condition, and the more you'll get back from your investment. There has never been a better time to ensure your patients are self-managing their health, be it digital cardiac or pulmonary rehabilitation, health education or symptom monitoring, and we've built all the tools you need. If you're a customer and you need any help with the my mhealth platform or eLearning website , please contact your Digital Health Advisor or contact our head office and we'll be happy to help you. If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how my mhealth are supporting clinicians and patients with cutting-edge digital tools, get in touch here or call us on 0044 (0)1202 299 583.
By 9 Sept, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
At my mhealth we strive to improve the health and quality of life of people and see technological innovation as an exciting vehicle to achieve this. Our teams of doctors and technologists are constantly looking for new treatments and technologies to help meet our ambitions, be it self-management, education, rehabilitation, interventions or therapeutics. And not just for the few, we want to do this at scale, so everyone gets the chance to benefit This is what my mhealth is all about. We've done it for COPD, we've done it for asthma, diabetes and heart disease. And now we've done it for mental health. The prevalence of anxiety disorders across the world varies from 2.5 to 7 per cent by country. Globally an estimated 284 million people experienced an anxiety disorder in 2017, making it the most prevalent mental health or neurodevelopmental disorder (1). Mental health is without a doubt an illness that can be significantly improved using digital therapeutics such as virtual reality, and global investment in digital therapeutics is higher for psychiatry than any other type of illness. That's why in 2019 we invested in a study to understand the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy for anxiety-related mental health conditions. In a collaborative partnership with Bournemouth University and Innovate UK, Robert Farthing, our VR developer, has built a digital therapy using immersive VR as a treatment for anxiety. Rob Farthing, the principal developer told us: "Over the past few months, there has been much discussion of mental health, so this project feels more relevant than ever, having the potential to help people who are isolated through creating a means of teaching mindfulness to manage stress and anxiety digitally. During the lock-down, we are seeing increases in adoption of technology to stay connected; there are also ongoing studies into how VR in particular is helping to address the psychological effects of global quarantines through travelling to relaxing virtual locations." The digital therapy treats patients using existing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindful meditation techniques and is designed to complement rather than fully replace traditional therapy delivered by a therapist. The VR mindfulness app enables people to focus on relaxation techniques without the distractions of the outside world. The immersion offered by virtual reality gives people a sense of 'presence' in a 3D computer-generated world, helping them to practice mindfulness in a controlled manner. Handheld controllers connected to the VR headset, or the headset itself, track the user's motions during exercise, meditation and breathing exercises and patients can see a representation of themselves in the world we've created. Patients can even go as far as interacting with the landscape. For example, picking up a flower and focusing on the petals, changing the colour of their petals one by one. Or strolling through the virtual landscapes.
By 5 Aug, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source. my mhealth is a clinically led software company that develops and deploys Apps which help patients and clinicians to manage long-term conditions better. Since our launch we have worked collaboratively with 100s of CCGs, NHS Acute Trusts, GP practices and community providers to digitally transform the way they provide care and interact with individuals with long-term conditions. Through this process we have developed a great insight into how to make digital transformation work and remove some of the barriers which can prevent uptake of and engagement with digital technology. One of the most impactful interventions is the development of a new digital health adviser (DHA) role. A DHA is typically a non-clinical member of staff who is trained by the my mhealth digital transformation team to work with both clinicians and patients to improve uptake and engagement with our Apps. The role of a DHA can include: Supporting the process of patient identification and enrolment Following up patients, troubleshooting any problems they may have and signposting them to the most relevant parts of the self-management platform. Supporting clinicians to optimally use the platform - helping them to remotely monitor and manage their patients. We have seen an amazing impact from DHAs: 100% increase in the rate of uptake of our Apps 95% conversion of patient registrations into regular active users We asked Bex, our DHA for the Mid and South Essex STP to share some of her experience of the role and its impact: What first interested you about the DHA role and made you want to join my mhealth? I have worked in the NHS for 16+ years, I was first introduced to Digital Health as a clinical manager when myCOPD was rolled out within our community respiratory service. At the time I had always thought we needed something different than the paper sheets and questionnaires that would be supplied to patients. After the introduction to digital health through myCOPD I became excited about the progression of digital and was always on hand to help patients with set up and questions should they arise. When Covid hit I could see the clinical teams scrambling to find an alternative to face to face care and instantly the barriers to digital were removed, clinicians who previously were not too keen, started to encourage patients to perform their pulmonary rehab via the app and patients who had once not had smart phones or the internet acquired them to keep in contact with family. I always wanted to explore more about digital and when this new role appeared at my mhealth. I instantly applied, and here I am today helping patients manage and monitor their long-term conditions and loving every minute of it. What is your biggest achievement as a DHA? I would say my biggest achievement to date is seeing the impact my role is having within a service, I recently worked with a community provider that had onboarded 231 diabetes patients but due to staffing constraints they had been unable to follow these patients up as fast as they have liked. I identified that 127 of the 231 patients had activated their app so far, I proceeded to send out 90 re-activations. I also identified that only 11 of the patients had completed their education, so I sent out 121 in app messages with prompts for education and how to get the best out of their app, to date I have seen the following improvements: Activation has gone from 127 to 140, a 10.2% increase within 48 hours of re-activation sent. 38 patients have logged on to the app within 48 hours of contact. The number of educational videos watched in 48 hours has doubled! For me this has been amazing. I have always been passionate about working with patients to manage their long-term conditions and this has shown me that if I do this with every provider, I can help patients to use digital technologies at massive scale. If you're an existing customer and would like to discuss the Digital Health Adviser role and how it could help your service and your patients to get more out of the my mhealth platform, please contact your dedicated account manager. If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how my mhealth can help your patients, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583
By 5 Aug, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
With the possibility that further waves of COVID-19 will cause yet more disruption to the health service, my mhealth have enhanced their COVID-19 virtual ward app. This new product combines an upgraded app with a wraparound support package, that enables clinical teams to open a virtual ward within 48 hours to safely manage and monitor patients with COVID-19 at home, or in a care home. The patient is given access to an app that can be used on almost any device (smartphone, tablet, or computer) which records their symptoms as well as observations from a pulse oximeter, twice a day. The app instantly provides patients and their care team with messages/alerts aligned to the new NHS England COVID-19 Remote Monitoring Guidelines The COVID-19 Virtual Ward comes with a full customer support program for both the clinical site and the patient. Not only have we further refined the application to meet the needs of clinical teams and patients, but we have also streamlined our deployment processes meaning a COVID-19 Virtual Ward can be set up and ready to receive patients within 48 hours, guaranteed. Each patient is supplied with a pulse oximeter directly from us within 24 hours, and we facilitate the admission by assisting patients in using the app and the pulse-oximeter. Patients can be discharged from the ward at any time, and a copy of their stay can now be exported to the clinical record. On contract signature we will work with clinical teams, local information and clinical governance leads to get all of the approvals, training and permissions in place, so when NHS providers need to activate the ward, all of these processes are covered, reducing the risk of any unnecessary delays. "This new product is a game-changer for the safe remote management of patients with COVID-19, and combined with our integrated long-term condition platform can optimise patients most at risk during their virtual stay" COVID-19 Virtual Wards are set up for a one-off fixed fee and can be activated at any time over a 3-year period. The cost includes site setup, training, and the postage/distribution of a pulse oximeter for each patient. For more information please visit www.mymhealth.com/covid-app or contact us at info@mymhealth.com for a free demonstration.
By 9 Jun, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
They say that necessity is the mother of adoption, which certainly appears to be true in the world of digital health. Recent unprecedented events have resulted in the suspension of all face to face pulmonary rehabilitation services and an almost complete cessation of COPD outpatient clinics. Out of the adversity, health care services have realised that it is essential to continue to support patients with COPD to avoid deterioration and an increase in COPD emergency admissions. This has led to far greater adoption of the myCOPD App. My mhealth have worked to support services with existing access, as well as initiating access to the myCOPD App to support those not previously engaged. In a very short space of time services have overcome traditional barriers to adoption, adapted delivery pathways, and are already realising the benefits that digital enhancement presents. myCOPD is a patient self-management App referenced within the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD 2020) guidelines, the British Thoracic Society (BTS) resource pack for Pulmonary Rehabilitation, and NICE guidelines for COPD to support patient self-management and the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. Over 50% of health care providers in NHS England (NHSE) gained access to the myCOPD App through the NHSE Innovation and Technology Tariff (ITT 2017/19). I have been working with services to embed the myCOPD App with varying levels of success. There are some common themes of resistance: the ‘not invented here’ culture; making assumptions on digital capability, accessibility and appetite with the ‘not for our patients’ response; there is also a perceived threat to resources (time, jobs). However, many services have thrived with digital transformation leading to some truly innovative models of care. In 2018 an Enhanced PR programme was launched in Southend utilising myCOPD, offering a flexible approach to pulmonary rehabilitation delivery allowing patients to complete either centre- or home-based rehab or a combination of the two. Review of progress at the end of year one showed improved completion rates, a doubling of service capacity whilst maintaining the same outcomes for patients in both exercise capacity and quality of life scores. No one could have predicted that we would be in a position whereby all face to face pulmonary rehabilitation would be suspended, but in response to the current situation, my mhealth have worked to support those areas with existing access to myCOPD, sharing models of best practice to support service delivery and patient care. The decision was also taken to widen the opportunity to support the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation by offering access to myCOPD to pulmonary rehabilitation services for 3 months, at no cost to the service or patients. Already 21 new sites expressed an interest and 19 of those sites have since been set up, trained and are issuing licences to their patients. The current pandemic has resulted in a remarkable transformation in the way we have delivered services to our patients. These skills, from remote video consultations, working collaboratively with colleagues using teams and embedding new digital tools into our normal working days has made us realise the benefits that digitally-enabled healthcare can bring to our clinical services. If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how myCOPD can help your patients, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583
By 6 May, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
Last week, Waterside PCN became the first PCN in the UK to go live with the my mhealth COVID-19 Virtual Ward app. Waterside PCN is a group of 5 surgeries based in West Hampshire, who have started digitally transforming their patient pathway, by providing their patients with access to our entire Long-Term Condition (LTC) platform. Patients suspected to have, or diagnosed with coronavirus, will now have access to the COVID-19 Virtual Ward alongside the other apps. The COVID-19 Virtual Ward app uses a clinically recognised scoring algorithm to assist patients being managed in a virtual environment to be cared for remotely by their clinical team. By answering questions and recording a few measurements twice a day using a pulse oximeter, the patients provide their clinical team with the information needed to monitor their symptoms remotely. The app has enabled us to monitor patients safely at home who we otherwise would have either needed to bring back daily for saturation monitoring or would have required admission. The Waterside PCN team provided patients with access to a pulse oximeter, enabling them to accurately measure their oxygen levels and add their results to the Covid-19 virtual ward. We asked Dr Jessica Pickford, of the Red and Green Practice, to tell us how the app is helping her patients. She told us: ‘’The Waterside PCN has been itching to get going with the LTC apps since we discovered them towards the tail end of last year. The final trigger was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent development of the COVID-19 Virtual Ward app. The combination of these apps provided an instant set of solutions to an acute and unprecedented set of complex problems not seen on this scale in primary care before. With the nation in lockdown, how were we going to provide the same level of care and monitoring to our patients with LTCs? The very people who are deemed most vulnerable and in most need of regular health provision now find themselves in the position of being put at risk by just coming to the surgery. Of course, the other, more acutely worrying dilemma was how were we to effectively monitor those patients in the community with potential COVID-19 infection? We know from the evidence coming out of China and Italy that people with COVID-19 can show quite mild symptoms one day and then be very unwell requiring hospitalisation within 48hours. One of the earliest signs of deterioration is a drop in their oxygen saturations which is often not associated, at least initially, with a worsening of symptoms. How were we going to keep patients at home that could be following this path? The solution came with the COVID-19 Virtual Ward app. Following remote telephone triage, the practices within the network can issue patients with potential COVID-19 symptoms pulse oximeter and a thermometer. These are then collected from the hot site by a family member or friend. This enables the patient to input their observations into the COVID-19 app and score their symptoms. Algorithms within the app then presents relevant alerts and advice to the patient and present this within a dashboard that can be visualised remotely from the hot hub. The app has enabled us to monitor patients safely at home who we otherwise would have either needed to bring back to the hot hub daily for saturation monitoring or would have required admission. It also allows us to react quickly to those patients who are showing the early signs of deterioration but who would otherwise not seek help. We have been able to utilise the long-term apps alongside the COVID-19 Virtual Ward app in several ways. Firstly, that people with diabetes are at increased risk of hyperglycaemia and Diabetes Ketoacidosis (DKA) with COVID-19. Combining the myDiabetes app with the COVID-19 Virtual Ward app assists the GP in monitoring people with diabetes who develop COVID-19 closely and again enables them to react quickly and admit the patient if needed. Secondly, with regards to patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, it can be difficult to determine if their symptoms are just due to an exacerbation of their LTC or if it is the early signs of COVID-19. By combining the two apps we can safely monitor observations and symptoms for the potential of COVID-19 whilst assisting with the management of their LTC. We have been very clear to patients that they are to not rely on the clinician monitoring the dashboard but should note the prompts generated by the apps and react accordingly. We promote the persons ’ownership’ of their LTC and the apps are a perfect platform for this. They are full of self-help videos, education and self-management opportunities. The dashboard gives the clinician a very quick and simple overview of the patient data within the individual apps enabling quick decisions and support. Aside from COVID-19, the LTC apps provide us with a solution to the issue of maintaining LTC support and advice whilst working in a remote environment. Our patients have found the apps very simple to set up. Patients of all ages are utilising them with ease and are excited to use them. Our diabetes, asthma and COPD nurses can also benefit from having our patients use these apps. Not only do the apps assist with the accumulation of data remotely, but they also improve the patient's engagement, insight and management of their own health, and save us significant amounts of time trying to collate all the relevant information for the yearly reviews and QOF. The apps are revolutionising our way of working and improving our patient care. If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how COVID-19 Virtual Ward can help your patients, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583
By 24 Apr, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
C OVID-19 Virtual Ward is for patients suspected to have or diagnosed with coronavirus. By answering a few questions and recording a few measurements twice a day - cough, wellness, breathing, pulse, temperature and oxygen levels (using an oximeter) - the app uses a clinically recognised scoring algorithm to assist patients being managed in a virtual environment to be cared for remotely by their clinical team. The app works in parallel with all four apps in the my mhealth eco-system - myCOPD, myAsthma, myDiabetes and myHeart - making it the only coronavirus app in the world that supports patients with co-morbidities. Clinical teams can monitor hundreds of patients remotely and intervene when necessary, taking pressure off front-line services. Dr Simon Bourne, founder and CEO of my mhealth and the principal designer of the app talks about the benefits the new COVID-19 Virtual Ward brings to clinicians and patients: "As clinicians ourselves we have experienced first-hand the enormous resource impact that the current pandemic is having at all levels of care. In response to a request from NHS clinicians and providers, we have built a simple yet powerful bolt-on to the current my mhealth platform that will enable a safe, cost-effective, immediately deployable solution to managing the many 1000s of patients that need to be monitored outside of the conventional setting." The patient dashboard displays all the patients under a clinician's care, their current symptoms, oxygen saturation, pulse rate and wellness. The patient's profile allows clinical teams to track their patient's symptoms and physiology over time, making it easy to see changes and to decide when a patient needs extra support. With all the latest official coronavirus advice from the UK governments Chief Medical Officer and Chief Science Officer, the COVID-19 Virtual Ward app has been heralded as an essential tool in the NHS arsenal for fighting coronavirus and supporting the population at scale. Dr Bourne explained why, "In a time when we are all having to run clinical services remotely, there is a realisation that to manage patients at a population scale we need to harness the same devices for healthcare services and monitoring, that many of our patients are already using to manage their day to day lives. Technology has the power to free up clinical resources to enable us to prioritise care for the most vulnerable in the community". Dr Bourne has invited clinical commissioning groups to join forces with my health, saying "We can help clinical teams to get up and running within 48 hours, please contact us today and we can support, train and activate your teams remotely to start admitting patients to the virtual ward within hours". If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how COVID-19 Virtual Ward can help your patients, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583
By 16 Apr, 2020 25 Jul, 2024
In March 2020, my mhealth released a ground-breaking hyper-local air quality forecast feature in their apps for patients. Partnering with BreezoMeter, the only company in the world who's forecasts are externally validated for accuracy and are recognised as the industry standard for real-time, location-based, outdoor air quality data, the new release is available to all existing and new users. Leveraging BreezoMeter's Global Air Quality Index (AQI), my mhealth offer patients detailed air quality forecasts, so they know what’s in their air, exactly where they are, and understand how it affects their condition. myCOPD and myAsthma now provide air quality information at the level of a few steps away. With actionable, personal recommendations based on individual sensitivities, and at a resolution of 5 metres - the equivalent of just a few steps - asthma and COPD patients will be able to make informed decisions about their day-to-day activity and will be better prepared to manage their condition. But what is the impact of poor air quality? All of us know that air pollution is bad for us, but few of us understand the true scale of impact. Official statistics from the World Health Organisation state that 92% of us live in areas where air pollution exceeds the guidelines considered to be safe, 9/10 people breathe polluted air each day, and that 4.2 million premature deaths occur each year as a result of exposure to air pollution. Prolonged and even short-term exposure can particularly harm sensitive groups with pre-existing respiratory or cardiovascular conditions, the elderly, children, and pregnant women, however, the stark reality is air pollution exposure affects our bodies from head to toe - research has found air pollution to be linked to cancer, asthma, strokes, dementia and more. Ran Korber, CEO of Breezometer told us: "Today, all of our environmental engineers understand the connection between our health and the environment and refuse to compromise when it comes to accuracy around air quality & helping people to manage exposure. After all, we each breathe 3000 gallons of air a day." BreezoMeter adopts an innovative approach to air quality data reporting. They combine data from multiple data sources, which includes more than 47,000 sensors worldwide, meteorological data, satellites, weather, fire and sandstorm events, and live traffic information. This unique approach means they're able to collect information even when one source becomes unavailable. They calculate air pollution in 440 million geographical points around the world and validate and organize more than 1.8 TB of data each hour. They deploy 35 different algorithms, machine-learning and sophisticated modelling to calculate 7.5 billion pollutant concentrations in high accuracy on an hourly basis. The end result is real-time air quality information that is accurate down to a hyper-local scale of 0.3 Miles (500 Meters). Dr Simon Bourne, CEO and founder of my mhealth goes into more detail about the importance of hyper-local air quality forecasts for patients, "There has been a rapidly evolving evidence base that links poor air quality to worse outcomes for a patient with long-term conditions. We have partnered with BreezoMeter to provide our patients with access to the very best in local air quality information, right down to the type of pollution so our patients can make an informed choice about how they plan their day. There is currently no other long-term condition platform that delivers this information, with this accuracy and in such detail". Dr Bourne has big plans for the new air quality feature in the apps, with detailed pollution forecasts helping thousands of more patients when my mhealth expand overseas into territories such as The USA, Australia and New Zealand, "Another reason why this implementation is so important is that we have near-term plan plans to expand our business overseas this year. This partnership will enable us to deliver the same accuracy of forecasting wherever you are in the world". If you're a healthcare professional or clinician and want to know more about how hyper-local air pollution forecasting can help your asthma and COPD patients, or if you're living with one of these conditions and would like to benefit from the new feature in the myCOPD and myAsthma apps, you can find out more at www.mymhealth.com or by calling my mhealth on 0044 (0)1202 299 583
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