Warfarin self-test app touches down on NHS App Library

A mobile app that helps patients who use the drug warfarin to self-test at home and engage with their care team has joined the NHS App Library after receiving approval from NHS Digital.

The Engage app allows patients to monitor their INR (international normalised ratio) remotely using coagulation measurement tools and send the results directly to their clinician.

Warfarin is a drug used to reduce the risk of conditions arising from blood clots, including strokes and heart attacks.

The technology behind Engage has been developed by LumiraDx Care Solutions, a Cornwall-based software company that provides its anticoagulation management software, INRstar, to the NHS.

The data from the app is sent to care teams via INRstar, who can then review and dose the individual before sending the results back to the patient via Engage.

According to LumiraDx Care Solutions, the entire exchange can be completed in just a matter of minutes.

Company managing director, Michael Barritt, said: “This is a very important moment for us as it validates all the hard work we have done over the years to build our software and apps to meet these very exacting standards, so that our customers, users and patients can be certain they are using technology that meets the highest possible standards to ensure their safety and security.’’

The app is now live in the NHS App Library and patients can access it by contacting their anticoagulation clinic or LumiraDx Care Solutions.

The NHS App Library contains a range of approved apps that have been clinically and technically tested for safety and effectiveness.

In March, NHS Digital called on developers to submit their software to the library ahead of its planned nationwide launch at the end of the year.

LumiraDx Care Solutions called the approval process “extremely thorough”.

The company said that the app represented the first stage of a wider self-care platform under the Engage brand, with further self-care programmes for anticoagulation therapy to follow in the near future.

LumiraDx also plans to present “evidence-based programmes” for patients with long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and heart disease.

Hazel Jones, programme director of apps and wearables at NHS Digital, said: ‘We are really excited to be able to showcase the Engage app in our NHS Apps Library.

“As the first app of its type to be approved for our NHS Apps Library, the concept of enabling patients to self-care in an assisted environment fits so well with our digital ambitions within the NHS to provide greater choice for patients to manage better health outcomes within the ‘Empower the Person’ and ‘Citizen Health Tech’ initiatives.”