Infermera Virtual (Virtual Nurse), the first app that successfully overcomes the accreditation process of the AppSalut Site.

In early 2016, when this accreditation process had begun, there were assessed a total of 8 applications in the healthcare area. One of them is the Official Nursing Association of Barcelona (COIB -Col·legi Oficial d’Infermeres i Infermers de Barcelona) Virtual Nurse App which is the first application that successfully surpasses all the apps’ accreditation process.

TIC Salut Social Foundation,  following the Government request in mHealth.cat Mobility Planning framework, promoted in 2015, has been working since then in the AppSalut Site implementation, an apps’ window of the health and social welfare area with the aim to encourage the citizen’s self-health care. All applications that will appear in the AppSalut site should overtake a quality accreditation process which establishes a safe and trustful environment for this technology usage. “The APPSalut Site guarantees the APPS’ quality in order to be prescribed by the diverse healthcare and social area professionals with security”,  states Dr Francesc Garcia Cuyàs, director of TIC Salut Social Foundation.

Virtual Nurse from the Official Nursing Association of Barcelona (COIB) is a health promoting and educational tool aimed both to citizens and to health care professionals. It has the purpose of encouraging the individual autonomy and independence for healthcare decisions making. The user may easily and understandably refer the healthcare information by using different formats like video, computer graphics or healthcare advises. The virtual nurse offers to the user all the potential service provided by the nurse’s know-how. Therefore, nurse and user may communicate directly and efficiently.

“We are very pleased to have been the first app in achieving the accreditation”, explains Marc Fortes, director of Virtual Nurse. “It proves the spirit that always has had our project of promoting and educating for the health of commitment with the rigour and the certifications that bring trust to the user and that are so important in the health content apps.”

During these months, the app has been subjected to the mobile apps’ accreditation process of TIC Salut Social of the  AppSalut Site, achieving the successful surpass of usability, safety, technology and specified functional criteria. Exceeding these criteria involves that the application offers security and trust to the sector and the citizens while using the app with all the guarantees.

“Applications like these are adding value to the healthcare system. They also ease to citizens referring issues regarding their health quickly and easily”, points out Carme Pratdepàdua, responsible for mHealth.cat Office of the TIC Salut Social Foundation.