Evaluating the national rollout of the NHS App in England

The National Health Service (NHS) in England has introduced a new (smartphone or tablet) app for patients, called ‘the NHS App’. This app (available on iOS and Android)  has been available in England from July 2019. People are able to use the app to see their medical records, prove their Covid-19 vaccination status, book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, add their name to the organ donation register, have online consultations and undertake other tasks related to their health and care.

This project started in 2019 to evaluate the newly developed NHS App. It is important to note that this is not the Covid-19 App used for contact tracing (which has received much publicity of late) or a commercial app which has been branded as a NHS App.

AIMS

1. To understand the role of the NHS App and its different functions in the context of technology-enabled access to primary care
2. To develop the evidence base on roll-out and routine use of technology-supported options for accessing primary care and other health services

The research will primarily use interviews and discussion groups (either virtually or face-to-face, if possible) with people who do and do not use the app, with staff working in the NHS (e.g. doctors, nurses, receptionists, practice managers) and with those working in healthcare planning or technology development for the NHS. These interviews and discussion groups will try to understand what people think about the app, and whether they find it helpful. We will also sit (either virtually or face-to-face, if possible) with people and watch how they use the app in practice.

We will also examine whether and how the app has changed the way people use or access the health service, rates of organ donation and rates of data opt outs. In answering these questions, we will investigate how adoption and use of the app varies by age, gender, ethnicity and other protected characteristics, as well as regional variations and variations in socio-economic status, to understand the potential impact on health inequalities.

To evaluate the use and acceptability of the NHS App, we will assess early patterns of uptake and adoption of the app and measure its stated aims to improve:

1. Access to primary care services
2. Online prescription ordering
3. Access to patient records

We work closely with our patient and public involvement (PPI) group to design and undertake the study. For example, we work with the group to refine what questions to ask in the interviews and discussion groups, and how to ask these questions when we talk to patients and NHS Staff.

We will also ask our PPI members to help with understanding what we have found out from the interviews and discussions groups and how to share these findings with others. There will also be opportunities for writing up the work in different formats.

We will work with our PPI group to help communicate our findings to NHS staff, patients, policymakers and the public.

We will work closely with NHSX and NHS Digital teams responsible for the development and implementation of the app so that we can learn from their experience, and we can feedback our findings to help improve the app.

We will also communicate the findings by going to events where we can talk about the work, preparing presentations about the study and findings, and also by writing and blogging about it on our department and the NHS App’s web pages. In addition we plan to write academic papers reporting on the outcomes of this study as well as providing lay summaries to participants of the study.

ARC OxTV Associated project.

Associated projects are not funded by the NIHR ARC OxTV, but are supported us. For example, through providing  researcher time, or other resources and expertise.

This associated project is funded by an NIHR Research Award, awarded via the 18/183 HSDR Digital Technologies to Improve Health and Care research call.