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Digital health apps can improve access, engagement, and outcomes — when they’re safe, effective, and easy to use.
APTA’s Digital Health App Library helps you lower the risk of recommending unsafe or ineffective apps while enhancing patient care. Exclusive to APTA members, the library offers a curated collection of digital health tools — taking the guesswork out of which apps are safe, effective, and high quality. Each app is independently reviewed by the Organization for the Review of Care and Health Apps, so you can confidently identify and recommend digital tools.
Go Further With a Pro Account
APTA members can take advantage of additional features by creating a free Pro Account, which gives you access to the APTA Digital Health App Formulary.
APTA Members
Access the Formulary Create Your Formulary Account
Once you've created your account, you'll be able to:
- Recommend vetted apps for Apple, Android, or the web with just a click.
- Send app recommendations directly by text or email.
- Track and manage all your recommendations with a full audit trail for liability protection.
- Save time by creating lists of your most recommended apps.
Since 2015, ORCHA has assessed thousands of apps, and none that passed its rigorous review process has resulted in reported patient harm. By recommending apps in the formulary, you lower risk while giving patients trusted, effective digital tools.
Learn more: View the recorded training session on the APTA Learning Center.
ORCHA assesses every product against over 400 standards and regulations to see if it meets standards in these three main areas:
- Data and privacy — whether the app manages, shares, stores, and removes data securely, and who can access the data.
- Clinical assurance and safety — whether potential risks of harm to patient health have been accounted for, if appropriate professionals have been involved in developing the app, and if there is sufficient evidence collected to support its use.
- Usability and accessibility — whether people can use it easily and effectively, taking into account users' physical or mental needs, such as level of visual acuity or digital literacy.
Assessments are based on the Digital Health Assessment Framework, developed by ORCHA, the American College of Physicians, and the American Telemedicine Association. Digital health products must achieve a score of over 65% in all three areas to be eligible to appear on ORCHA platforms.
After receiving information about an app from its creators, ORCHA uses a combination of technology (its ORCHA Assessment Review Engine) and human assessors to review it. Once ORCHA shares the app’s assessment score with the creators, they have 10 days to give feedback. After 10 days, if the app has passed the assessment, then it’s eligible to be added to a formulary.
ORCHA reassesses health apps and digital health technologies annually plus every time they are updated. If an app has not been updated for 18 months, it is considered out of date and no longer safe for use, and ORCHA removes it from its platforms.
If you know of an app that you don't see in the formulary, you can find out its status. Email hello@orchahealth.com with the name of the app and a request to know if the app was assessed and, if so, the reason it wasn’t added to the formulary. You can expect a response within three business days.
If the app has not been assessed and you would like it to be, ask to have it submitted for review, which takes approximately 20 days. There is a small fee to submit an app for assessment, but products can’t simply pay to be included in a formula; they must pass the assessment.
ORCHA has been assessing digital health products since 2015. These digital health products include iOS (Apple) apps, Android apps, and web apps. Through the assessment process, ORCHA helps digital health suppliers, such as app developers, create or improve their digital health products.
ORCHA also creates platforms, such as the APTA Digital Health App Formulary, to share the assessment results and other information about digital health products. These digital health app libraries and formularies help give health care professionals and organizations the confidence to recommend digital health products to their patients and the public.
ORCHA is aware that the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule added five CPT codes for remote therapeutic monitoring, allowing PTs to bill these codes when they use RTM medical devices that meet the FDA definition of a medical device to collect non-physiological data.
ORCHA is researching ways to address RTM codes so that users of the APTA Digital Health App Formulary can optimize their use of such devices using the products in the formulary.