Mobile and app news in brief

This month’s app round up covers an ambulance service making an innovative use of apps, alongside a company hoping to give everyone a therapist in their pocket.

Ambulance services use a smartphone triage app

The CQC has given an accolade of “outstanding” to the South Central Ambulance Service for its smartphone triage app. The technology, produced in conjunction with the Wessex Trauma Network, allows clinicians to send a patient straight to a major trauma centre, rather than a local hospital, if necessary.

Winners announced for London accelerator

Thirty-two small and medium sized digital health businesses have been chosen as the first cohort of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme. The selected SMEs will be given in-depth knowledge of the NHS during the year-long scheme that is part funded by the European Union. Chosen companies include DrDoctor, Sense.ly and MumoActive.

A therapist in your pocket

Not content with giving people access to a counsellor or therapist via their laptop, PlusGuidance now has its sights set on creating a secure mobile app. The company has a £100,000 target to create an app that links the user to a global pool of counsellors via secure video or voice and instant messaging sessions.

Leeds Beckett tackles skin cancer

An educational medical app to detect skin cancer earlier has been developed at Leeds Beckett University. Dermofit uses work done by the University of Edinburgh to create an image library of over 1,000 skin lesions, and it is now available on the market for non-specialist medical professionals. 

An app for children to confide in

Worrinots is a mobile app that kids can tell all their problems and concerns into. Young children can use the app, created by Oakley Mobile, to share their anxieties in a digital and confidential way. The technology then suggests proven techniques to help the children cope with their situation. 

Commenting on a Children Society report finding that 34% of ten to 15-year-old girls are unhappy with their appearance, Tracy Gladman, business manager at the Essex based Worrinots, said “we mustn’t go down the all too popular route of demonising technology” when apps like this one could really help.