Mytherappy health app reviews from the NHS.

An NHS information database, helping you find the right health apps. The mytherappy health app review website has been developed by the NHS and patients to help others. It was started by the multi-award winning Neuro-rehabilitation Team at Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust.

Our beliefs

Apps can improve your recovery and are a useful treatment tool.
Selecting the right app is key.
Information should be easily and freely available for patients and clinicians.
Helping patients recovery is our priority.

Our Story

Meeting patient demand

Mytherappy was started by NHS clinicians in 2013 to answer a patients question and has ended up in the creation of a globally recognised and internationally valued, recommended and utilised resource.

A patient asked our founding therapist

"are there any apps that could help with my rehab? "

The problem was knowing where to start and which apps were the best. There was a clear patient and clinical demand but no real evidence or guidance to answer this question. So we established an app testing group to solve the problem and started testing a variety of apps that looked promising.

Once we had solved this initial patients problem we realised this was a re-occuring issue and what potential apps held. We started testing apps more regularly and shared this information as widely as we could to meet the demand of enquiries and overwhelmingly positive feedback we were receiving. Patients and staff loved them and they were clinically working to achieve rehab goals.

Establishing the evidence

Over the course of the next 4 years we went from knowing little about apps, to having tested thousands of apps and launching the worlds first health app review site for Stroke patients.

In the three years following the launch the resource has grown and is now recommended by the worlds leading Stroke resources.

"Will make a real difference" Stroke Association

Our dedication and passion to improve digital health for our patients was recognised and supported by the founding teams health care trust North Devon,

and the Academic Health science network.

They helped us create the first health app review site of its kind. We worked with the NHS health apps library and the Stroke Association to create our robust testing criteria. The Stroke association encouraged us to share this with others by inviting us to speak at their national conference two years running.

Freely sharing information

Since we launched the website in 2017 the demand has continued to grow and our testing network has expanded nationally across NHS to meet this. We also added digital safety specialists, expert patients and expert carers as testers , as we believe they offer valuable insight into the reality of living with these medical conditions.

Excellent ... help you live with effects of brain injury" Headway"

Collaboration across national NHS network

We believe, in this modern age, digital health skills are now a key part of any clinicians toolkit. With this in mind we collaborated with universities to include students in the testing and provided training for them, in digital health skills. We wanted to help ensure that the next generation of clinicians can help keep their patients digitally safe.

“It’s great that the University is collaborating on this project ..the training session was really helpful for .. students .. learning ..about technology and rehabilitation. Students are looking forward to testing apps.” Amanda Denton Plymouth University.

Expanding the service

Over the next few years we expanded our health conditions to meet the demand from the health community.

Internationally recommended

We are delighted and humbled with the impact this service has had and the journey we continue to be on. We never dreamed that we would create a resource recommended by the World Stroke Organisation, Headway, Stroke Association and many more.

MytherAppy provides curated access to mobile apps that support Stroke self managed rehabilitation." World Stroke Organisation

"In love with your fantastic website ... recommending it. Great Job!" Different Strokes

What we do.

We believe in health apps and work hard to improve the standard of the health app market and help clinicians utilise them.

With so many on the market we help you find the right ones. Our rating systems also allow you to see what others think.

We aim to improve the usage and quality of health apps available on the market by:

App testing
Simple scores
Education and Training to clinicians
Collaboration with app developers

We want to share our knowledge and skills and help others develop the same skills. Our Training and Consultancy service help us to do this.

The mytherappy team.

Our testers are a multi disciplinary team of specialists in their clinical field. We are made up of Speech therapists, Occupational therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses, Drs.

Meet Ruth - Our Clinical lead and Co-Founder.

Ruth Siewruk is an Occupational Therapists specilising in Neurology. Ruth was inspired to start mytherappy while working with Stroke patients and recognising the potential health apps could bring to rehabilitation. Together with her colleagues at Northern Devon NHS Trust she founded the service and is still a big driving force in the team today. She, like all of the team, juggles her active clinical NHS caseload and her input into mytherappy. Ruth works within early supported discharge with Stroke and Brain Injury patients and also runs specialist clinics for Neurological patients requiring Cognitive rehabilitation and vocational rehabilitation.

Conference "Sharing our knowledge and allowing others to benefit is so important to me. Fundamentally, as clinicians, we are all one team working to help people. Mytherappy allows us to do this on a global scale and I am humbled by the impact it has had on the health community worldwide".

Here is Ruth spreading the word and helping as many clinicians as she can. She regularly delivers training, conference appearances, provides expert opinion for the Stroke association, hosts articles in peer reviewed journals and has even featured in BBC radio interviews, all to help fellow clinicians.

@RehabRuth

Meet Nick - One of our expert patients.

Nick is a Stroke patient and survivor who used apps as part of his rehabilitation and therapy.

“My stroke, in the summer of 2016, affected my left side. I had no movement in my left arm or leg and I had some face drop. I was bed bound and unable to do anything with my arm.

Drumming

I am now walking and enjoy walking my dog. I am increasing my speed and distance. I am trying to get my left hand and arm involved as much as I can and get back to drumming.

I find the mytherappy site very easy to use. The apps have a good description. I have found the Headspace app useful. Some of the apps for my hand it was too early but now that I am getting some movement in my hand I will be using them.

Having patients on the mytherappy team adds an extra dimension. People using the apps can give their opinion on how relevant or useful the app is.

Thanks to all the staff who have helped me along the road, you are all fantastic and inspirational. I would not have made the gains I have without your help and guidance”.

National recognition

The mytherappy team are winners of the following awards for its "VISTA" group and ESD service

care integration award
Advancing Healthcare category award
Advancing Healthcare overall award

Joining Forces innovation in community services award

Our mytherappy work has been recognised at the UK stroke forum hosted by the stroke association where we have been welcomed on multiple occasions to run apps workshops. We have also worked with NHS England and the Stroke Association.

We were finalists in the Advancing Healthcare awards for 2017 and have received the "penguin" award from the academy of FAB NHS stuff for our ability to overcome adversity by joining forces.