Epilepsy safety app achieve clean bill of digital health from leading app reviewer
SUDEP Action are celebrating a review score of 74% on the EpSMon app from ORCHA, the world’s leading assessor of digital health products.
This huge success is testament to the hard work of the project team at SUDEP Action and the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, as over 85% of health and care apps reviewed by ORCHA, do not pass on their first review.
EpSMon (EPilepsy Self MONitoring), a free downloadable app, is the digital version of the Seizure and Safety Checklist and has had over 4,000 downloads since its launch in 2015. Through a short series of questions checking a patient’s status against well-known epilepsy and health risks, EpSMon is able to quickly provide information and a recommendation on any risks, encouraging users to look closer at these with their health professional.
This vital information has the potential to save lives, as at least 42% of deaths due to their epilepsy (including those due to Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy; SUDEP) are thought to be preventable through improved risk information and better engagement with health services.
The impressive ORCHA score provides those with epilepsy, the reassurance that EpSMon is a high-quality safety tool, helping them to actively monitor and take action against epilepsy risks, in between appointments.
“It is fantastic to have ORCHA’s independent review of EpSMon recognising the amount of work that has gone into the app, and its potential to really help those living with epilepsy. This review will help us continue to improve the app so we can reach even more people with epilepsy to help them review and reduce their epilepsy risks.”
Sammy Ashby, SUDEP Action Deputy Chief Executive & EpSMon Project Coordinator
The ORCHA review also provides health and care professionals with the certainty that the app has been independently evaluated and meets a number of national and regional digital accreditation models.
"EpSMon is going from strength to strength in its developing evidence. The ORCHA review adds to the app’s already available expert feedback, national awards and publications. It is my hope that all this translates to continued and improved confidence in using EpSMon to keep a 'reality check' on one's epilepsy. The ORCHA review further attests that EpSMon can be a mirror to people with epilepsy to help reflect when things are going well and when things start to change, helping them to take pre-emptive action to keep themselves safe."
Professor Rohit Shankar, Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research; CIDER – University of Plymouth Medical School
ORCHA’s Review Engine is the most advanced review mechanism for health and care apps available anywhere, encompasses more than 300 measures, assessing for compliance with all of the relevant clinical, data and usability standards, to ensure that any health or care app that meets ORCHA’s quality threshold is the best on the market.
EpSMon (and its clinical sister-tool, the SUDEP and Seizure Safety Checklist) are recognised as best practice tools for helping to reduce epilepsy risks and tackle epilepsy deaths, by NHS RightCare’s Epilepsy Toolkit (Feb 2020), a toolkit which will support health teams and service providers to better understand priorities in epilepsy care. Both were also recommended in recent national enquiries (LeDeR and MBRRACE) as having the potential to improve outcomes for people with epilepsy. EpSMon was also featured as one of six projects chosen by the NHS to celebrate digital innovation within healthcare, as part of their 70year anniversary in 2018.
To find out more about EpSMon or to download the app, visit: www.sudep.org/epsmon
For information on epilepsy risks: https://sudep.org/epilepsy-and-risk
More about ORCHA