NHS Digital has approved the Hospify app, a secure, compliant and free-to-use clinical messaging app, for its NHS App Library.
Following 12 months of testing the app is now available in the NHS Apps Library to provide a tool for clinical professionals to communicate, without using WhatsApp.
The app underwent an assessment process to ensure its safety and efficacy in seven key areas. These were: 1) Clinical Safety, 2) Data protection, 3) Code security, 4) Usability and Accessibility, 5) Interoperability, 6) Technical stability, and 7) Available evidence of outcomes.
It offers similar functionality to popular consumer messaging apps such as one-to-one and group messaging, received and read receipts, and unlimited text and photo messages.
The app has also been awarded a score of 89% by ORCHA, the NHS England and NHS Digital approved app reviewer.
The company was co-founded by vascular surgeon and technologist Neville Dastur and former technology journalist James Flint (Wired, BBC, Telegraph).
James Flint, CEO, Hospify said “We’re delighted that NHS Digital has seen fit to publish Hospify in the official NHS Apps Library, signalling that it is appropriate for us right across the health and care system. We’re also incredibly proud that Hospify is the first – and so far, the only –general-purpose messaging app to be given this stamp of approval for use by both medical staff and patients.”
“The rise of the coronavirus is underlining the growing importance of telehealth in general and digital clinical communications in particular. At a time when the negative effects of poor data privacy, unsolicited data harvesting and aggressive behavioural targeting are dominating the news agenda and undermining the way our society works, it’s fantastic that the NHS has taken this positive step to stem the erosion of privacy as both healthcare professionals and their patients begin to rely increasingly on their mobile devices for the provision of care.”
A number of trusts, including Lincolnshire Community NHS Trust, Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and South Tyneside NHS Trust have signed off the app for use by their employees.
Neville Dastur, CTO, Hospify said “With Hospify, any health professional or patient can now be confident that they can communicate safely and quickly with colleagues and peers with all the ease and efficiency of the best consumer messaging apps, but without any compromise to their data or privacy.”
