Digital Health Passport
The Digital Health Passport pilot was commissioned by the Healthy London Partnership to enable sharing of care plans and to support self-management of chronic conditions with a focus on improving outcomes for young people with asthma and other long-term conditions.
It is developed by Tiny Medical Apps and co-produced with young people, school nurses, GPs and asthma specialists, the app can be downloaded here.
The Health Passport is a Personal Health Record (PHR) assistant that enables young people aged 13-25 years old with long-term conditions to take control of their health. It contains a digital asthma action plan and enables young people to track symptoms and access educational resources to help them manage their condition. The Digital Health Passport has been designed and developed to make it easier for patients to record and share their symptom data with their clinicians.
The young person can choose to share with their healthcare team if they want to. Asthma action plans can also be shared with school nurses, parents and carers. It is designed to make long term conditions easier to manage.
The main features of the Digital Health Passport are
- Asthma UK action plan
- Emergency plan
- Track symptoms
- NHS health advice and asthma management educational information
- Air quality levels (pollution, pollen and weather changes)
- Medication reminders
The use of a personalised asthma action plan is recommended in national guidelines produced by NICE and the British Thoracic Society (BTS). It is a measurable quality standard from NICE that all patients with asthma have a written personalised asthma plan.
Additionally, the Digital Health Passport records symptom data from patients (Patient Recorded Outcome Measures [PROMs]). Patients who record symptom data and share with their clinicians have been shown to have improved outcomes in a number of health conditions, although it is recognised that further work needs to be done refining the PROMs for use in asthma particularly for children and young people.
The Digital Health Passport has been reviewed by ORCHA and has a rating of 81% (iOS) and 80% (Android).
A small proof of concept pilot was undertaken in conjunction with Barts and the Royal London Hospital, Tower Hamlets CCG and Chrisp Street Medical Practice. The final report is available here
The Digital Health Passport was chosen in Dec 2019 as one of five companies to test NHS Login pilot
The Digital Health Passport has been selected by NHS England Innovation Technology Payments Evidence Generation Fund for use by Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Associated links
Presentation by Sara Nelson to UCLPartners Primary Care Innovation Network – on the Digital Health Passport for asthma available here
Call for teenagers with Asthma to co-design NHS app
Tiny Medical Apps Digital Health Passport