Frequently asked questions
How does Healthinote ensure that all content and their sources are credible and can be trusted?
We are careful to only use sources of health information that are known to be clinically led, trusted and reliable. With the support of our advisory board, our clinical director makes decisions about which resources should be included for the library. Our content sources currently include:
Our trusted charity content partners have been included in response to a survey that we have circulated amongst GPs to ask for their preferred content sources. The source of all content that appears in Healthinote is clearly shown.
How can I, as a doctor, send health information prescriptions using Healthinote Pro via eConsult?
If you are a clinician with access to eConsult, sending an information prescription is easy.
When you are in the post consult messaging service (PCM) you have access to the Healthinote search bar. Use the search bar to search for any health information. For example, if you search ‘contraception’, it will bring up all contraception health information from a variety of trusted sources. You can click to ‘preview’ the content and then press ‘insert’ to insert the link into the body of your message. Any links you insert will be sent to the patient who can then access the information via the Healthinote app for free.
This video may help summarise the above (this link will direct you to YouTube).
If you are a patient, you will receive an email from your clinician, which will include links to the content selected by them. On receiving these links, you can simply click on them to access the information. If you are using a smartphone, you will be prompted to download the Healthinote app the first time you receive an information prescription, and the content will then load onto your phone. On future occasions you will be able to click straight through to the prescribed information.
What do you do with my data?
We do not require you to provide any personal information and only track anonymised data. The app has security options so that sensitive content can be secured and accessed only with a password, fingerprint or face ID.
How often will the information on Healthinote be checked and reviewed so that the advice remains current and safe?
Our sources of content are carefully vetted by Cognitant’s clinical director, with support from our clinical advisory board. In most cases, we provide redirect links to the content on the partner websites, so that information remains up to date. In the case of the NHS, we have a licensing agreement to reproduce the content in the app. We have a feed for the content from the NHS so that content is updated automatically with updates made to the NHS website. Content developed by Cognitant Group is reviewed regularly (as a minimum annually) and updated to ensure it is compliant with the latest guidelines and reflects best practice.
Can we include Healthinote in our practice website?
Yes. We can provide you with information to help you give patients instructions as to how to access Healthinote. Please contact Cognitant’s marketing director, Alex Merckx (alex.merckx@cognitant.com) for this support.
How do your commercial and financial arrangements work?
Our standard service is available for free to both healthcare professionals and patients using NHS services.
Charges are applied for:
Content may be funded or commissioned by industry partners such as Pharma but, in this case, the sponsorship is clearly labelled and content must follow strict compliance rules as well as our stringent review process that we have built with our advisory group. Information about a specific product, for example an inhaler, is only available for patients who have been prescribed that particular product.
Do you do any user testing?
Yes, user testing is conducted on an ongoing basis with patients and healthcare professionals. For more information about input received from user testing, please contact Cognitant’s Marketing dDirector, Alex Merckx (alex.merckx@cognitant.com).
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User testing
Over 60 patients and healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, carers, physiotherapists) have been consulted as part of our ongoing user research programme.
The research has highlighted the wide range of needs that Healthinote users have, including cognitive load or impairment, mobility issues which make certain kinds of screen interactions more challenging, and visual impairments. This has led to careful attention being paid to reducing the amount of text on the screen, improvements to the search facility, and increasing the target size of buttons/clickable areas. Search data and app analytics have also been reviewed to identify patterns of usage.
Users have been shown designs and prototypes to help to test the quality of the designs and enable us to improve the service.
Some comments from users involved in the testing include:
Meet the team
Emma Bishop
Head of Content
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