Apps

Self-care app for warfarin patients gains approval for NHS Digital App Library

An innovative app that helps warfarin patients to self-test and stay fully connected to their care teams has recently been approved by NHS Digital to join the NHS App Library.

The engage app has been approved for its patient self-testing programme for those on warfarin therapy. The programme enables patients to monitor their INR (international normalized ratio) remotely using suitable coagulation measurement instruments such as Roche XS CoaguChek or INRange and send the results directly to their clinician’s decision support software.

This seamless flow of data between the patient app and the clinical dashboard allows the care team to review and dose the individual in INRstar and send the results back to them via their engage app in minutes.

The engage app was reviewed by NHS Digital and considered suitable for warfarin patients. The NHS Digital App Library contains a range of approved apps that have been clinically and technically tested for safety and effectiveness/to meet certain standards by NHS Digital, with the aim of providing patients, the public and clinicians with a trusted selection of digital health, care and wellbeing applications.

Hazel Jones, Programme Director Apps & Wearables including Uptake, NHS Digital says: ‘We are really excited to be able to showcase the Engage App in our NHS Apps Library. As the first app of its type to be approved for our NHS Apps Library, the concept of enabling patients to self-care in an assisted environment fits so well with our digital ambitions within the NHS to provide greater choice for patients to manage better health outcomes within the ‘Empower the Person’ and ‘Citizen Health Tech’ initiatives.’

Michael Barritt, Managing Director, LumiraDx Care Solutions UK Ltd adds: ‘This is a very important moment for us as it validates all the hard work we have done over the years to build our software and apps to meet these very exacting standards, so that our customers, users and patients can be certain they are using technology that meets the highest possible standards to ensure their safety and security.’’