UK firm Cambridge Healthcare, which has just launched what it claims is Europe’s first health-focused app store, is developing a certification programme whose aim is to reassure patients and health professionals that apps in the store have passed certain minimum standards.

The firm is currently working on the programme and hopes to make an announcement on October 3, according to an interview via email by Mobile Health Live with Dawson King, Cambridge Healthcare’s founder and CEO.

A similar move was made recently by Happtique, the US store which is probably the market leader in health apps and has reached a similar conclusion that a process of certifying apps is needed to push adoption forward.

The US store recently published a draft set of standards that it will use to certify medical, health and fitness apps that it offers. The aim of Happtique’s programme is to put users’ minds at rest while also offering advice to physicians. The criteria include operability, privacy, security and content reliability. Presumably, Cambridge Healthcare will be planning something along similar lines.

The company's app store is part of its wider personal health record service which is free in the UK (although obviously some developers might charge for their apps). Its business model involves commercially licensing its technology internationally. It is already present in the Chinese market. The company's background is as as a product of the NHS. It was spun off from the East of England NHS Innovation Council and East of England Strategic Health Authority.