CSC and NHS Choices showcase app

A ‘Pocket Health’ app developed by CSC for NHS Choices has been downloaded an estimated 5,400 times since its launch in September 2011.

The app, which was featured at the Department of Health’s maps and apps showcase event last week, gives users access to choice and treatment information from the government’s flagship health website.

The app allows users of iPhone, iTouch and iPad users to find their nearest hospital, clinic, pharmacy, doctor, dentist or opticians through its service finder.

This uses geolocation technology to show them the services they are looking for on a map.

Pocket Health also provides users with a screen image of the human body, which allows them access to a wide range of information on ailments and injuries and their relevant symptoms from NHS Direct.

Chris Yeowart, CSC UK healthcare sales executive, said told eHealth Insider at the maps and apps event that CSC has developed the service for free.

“CSC is so entrenched in the healthcare market, and with that always comes negative publicity,” he said.

“What we did here is to say: ‘we understand healthcare, provide the app as free of charge as a something back to the NHS’.”

Yeowart added: “From a clinical point of view, we’re trying to get patients to use this to seek self-help and because it’s NHS Choices it gets updated daily, making it dynamic and credible.

“We are trying to educate patients without them just Googling something, as who knows what you’re going to get back.”

He added that input from the DH had led to changes to the design, which features both NHS and CSC branding.

For example, he said an early version of the app had an ‘emergency’ button in a central position, but it had been moved to discourage inappropriate emergency calls. NHS Direct’s number was included within the app for the same reason.

Users also have the option of setting up an ‘In Case of Emergency’ record, holding contact and medical details that might be needed in an emergency.

Lee Appleyard, head of digital media and partnerships, NHS Choices, said: “Pocket Health delivers content from NHS Choices in an innovative, intuitive and easy-to-use format. Mobile technology is very important for the delivery of modern healthcare.”

The app is available free from the iTunes store. It was ranked 18th in the list of ‘good ideas’ chosen by the maps and apps judges, from more than 500 submitted to the DH competition.