08-Jun-2021

Orcha rates Wellmind Health’s Be Mindful and Pathway through Pain as highest-scoring apps for depression and chronic pain

World’s leading digital health evaluation organisation rates Wellmind Health’s Be Mindful and Pathway through Pain as highest-scoring apps for depression and chronic pain

June 4th, London UK: Wellmind Health today announced that its Be Mindful and Pathway through Pain NHS-approved digital therapeutics have been rated the highest-scoring apps for depression and chronic pain respectively in ORCHA’s AppFinder library in its latest review update. ORCHA, the world’s leading independent digital health evaluation organisation, regularly updates its review platform to ensure new medical, IT and usability standards are embedded into its review process. The latest platform update is its most robust and effective to date.

The Be Mindful Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme and Pathway through Pain Pain Management Programme (PMP) deliver significant and measurable long-term results, backed up by rigorous academic and clinical research studies, outstanding feedback from participants and providers, and confidential analytics. Course completers achieve outstanding reductions in levels of depression, anxiety and stress and significant improvements in the self-management of chronic pain.

Both web-based courses passed the NHS Digital DAQ2 assessment and are listed on the EMIS App Library, having passed rigorous NHS quality standards for clinical effectiveness, safety, security, usability and accessibility. They are provided to patients across the UK, from GP Surgeries and Pain Clinics to IAPT and Community Health Services, and support staff at corporates and professionals such as teachers, police officers, ambulance services and cancer nursing staff, as well as being available to individuals.

ORCHA’s independent review process identifies health and care apps that have clinical merit, are safe and quality assured, with the reviews populating regional and national health app libraries across the world. The ORCHA Review intelligent platform looks at the nature and purpose of technologies to identify, from more than 350 factors across the many digital health standards and measures, which ones it must meet. The ORCHA system then looks at how appropriately digital health technologies meet these relevant standards.

Liz Ashall-Payne, founding CEO of ORCHA said, “Our congratulations to the team at Wellmind Health for achieving such a high ORCHA score. We work hard behind the scenes with developers to meet standards industry wide. It is fantastic to see that Be Mindful and Pathway Through Pain are scoring so highly across professional assurance, data privacy and useability, which are all vital for good digital health.”

Wellmind Health CEO, Richard Latham, said, “We are delighted that both of our NHS-approved digital courses have achieved even stronger ratings to become the highest-scoring apps in categories in the latest ORCHA platform update. With an ever-growing number of apps available and increasing interest in digital interventions and the benefits they can deliver, ORCHA’s valuable work continually assessing thousands of apps through their rigorous review process is vital to ensuring patients and individuals are provided with safe and effective health apps.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

About Wellmind Health

Wellmind Health has been a pioneer in digital mental health and digital therapeutics for over a decade. NHS-approved and NHS-trusted, the Pathway through Pain and Be Mindful web-based courses are designed and delivered by experts and clinically proven to deliver significant and measurable long-term results. Course completers achieve outstanding reductions in levels of depression, stress and anxiety and significant improvements in the self-management of chronic pain.

Wellmind Health’s founders first launched Meditainment, their original library of guided meditations, after recognising the incredible potential of digital mental health training when connecting their background in web production with efforts to improve their own mental health. Meditainment’s evidence-based immersive meditations enjoy a 5-star Trustpilot rating and are an integral part of Pathway through Pain.

The Wellmind Health team is dedicated to providing high-quality digital interventions, analytics and reporting that improve outcomes and make a real and lasting impact on real lives, healthcare services, companies and society.

About Pathway through Pain

Pathway through Pain is the only clinically validated digital Pain Management Programme (PMP). The flexible web-based course has helped many thousands of people take control and better manage chronic/persistent musculoskeletal pain since its launch in 2011.

Pain medicine experts teach participants a new approach to pain, empowering self-management of pain for an improved quality of life with pain no longer in control. The Pathway is a standalone intervention or works in conjunction with existing treatments to help reduce the need for drug prescriptions and face-to-face appointments.

Published clinical research and outstanding participant feedback evidence a 24% reduction of problems in daily life and a 20% boost to quality of life, while 78% would recommend the Pathway to others with persistent pain. Pathway through Pain has been shown to deliver a 45% reduction in healthcare costs.

About Be Mindful

Be Mindful is the only clinically validated digital Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme. Developed with the pioneers of MBCT, the confidential, on-demand and personalised web-based course helps people take control of their mental wellbeing and better cope with stress and challenges in their lives.

Leading mindfulness teachers guide participants through instructional videos, interactive sessions, and mindfulness assignments at a pace they are comfortable with, as they learn to naturally practice mindfulness in their daily lives. Be Mindful is effective as an early intervention for low mood, a clinical intervention for depression, anxiety and stress, and to help maintain general wellbeing.

Clinical and academic research demonstrates the outstanding results of this medication-free online intervention, with course completers enjoying lasting reductions in stress (68%), anxiety (58%) and depression (40%). The course was highlighted for its high level of evidence (Nesta standards) in a RAND report for Public Health England into workplace health and wellbeing.

About Meditainment

Meditation is a unique course of guided meditation and visualization. It was created so that anyone, anywhere, can easily experience the power of their calm mind and establish a meditation practice to enjoy the many wellbeing benefits this brings. First in the Wellmind Health family and clinically validated as an integral feature of Pathway through Pain, the web-based course has received critical acclamation and outstanding user feedback for over a decade and enjoys a 5-star Trustpilot rating.

Meditation has many well-known benefits, including stress reduction, relaxation, calming the mind, pain and insomnia relief, reduced anxiety, improved mood and sleep quality, and a more positive outlook. Meditainment’s blend of established guided meditation and visualization techniques is enhanced with relaxing music and authentic sounds of nature to help transport participants on imaginative journeys to explore and reflect on a range of wellbeing topics.

The unique course of engaging, highly accessible guided audio meditations consists of three Voyages, each comprising six different meditation destinations, which promote better mental wellbeing in an inclusive and enjoyable way.

The scale of the problem

Chronic pain costs the UK billions of pounds every year. Back pain alone overall costs £10bn for the UK economy. [1]
4 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury in the UK in 2018, equivalent to 4.4 days per worker. Musculoskeletal problems accounted for nearly 19.7% of the total (27.8 million days) and mental health conditions 12.4% (17.5 million days).[2]
The annual cost to employers of poor mental health is £33 billion-£42 billion - over half of the cost coming from presenteeism – when individuals are less productive due to poor mental health in work - with additional costs from sickness absence and staff turnover.[3]
Back pain alone accounts for 40% of sickness absence in the NHS.[4]
People with a mental health condition are also three times more likely to have a long-term period of sickness.[5]
Mental health problems — typically stress, anxiety and depression — account for 40% of Legal & General’s income protection claims.[6]
300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem leave employment every year.[7]
In 2017 to 2018, 11.5 million adults in England (26% of the adult population) received, and had dispensed, one or more prescriptions for any of the strong painkillers, antidepressants and sleeping tablets within the scope of the review (PHE Prescribed medicines review). In too many cases patients were using them for longer than "clinically" appropriate, where the drugs would have simply stopped working effectively or where the risks could outweigh the benefits. Half of people who were using the drugs in March 2018 had been on them for a year or more with about a quarter having used them for at least three years.[8]
NICE draft clinical guideline published August 2020 on the assessment and management of chronic pain in over 16s stated a number of commonly used drug treatments for chronic primary pain have little or no evidence that they work and can potentially cause harm so shouldn’t be prescribed.[9]
New NICE guidelines for treating chronic primary pain recommend exercise, talking therapies and acupuncture instead of painkillers, citing risk of harm and a lack of evidence for their effectiveness.[10]
Data from the Office for National Statistics in June 2020 showed the number of adults experiencing depression almost doubled since the pandemic began.[11]
A survey published January 2021 by Public Health England (PHE) found half of adults surveyed saying they were more worried during that current lockdown than in March 2020. Significant proportions said they had experienced anxiety (46%), stress (44%), sleep problems (34%) and low mood (46%) throughout the pandemic.[12]