Sorry to reply to my own thread but I've given thus a try and will see how it goes:

Function IsAppRunning(appName As OfficeAppName) As Boolean

Dim appString As String
Select Case appName
    Case 1 ' Outlook
        appString = "Outlook.exe"
    Case 2 ' PowerPoint
        appString = "PowerPnt.exe"
    Case 3 ' Excel
        appString = "Excel.exe"
    Case 4 ' Word
        appString = "WINWORD.EXE"
    Case 5 ' Publisher
        appString = "MSPUB.EXE"
    Case 6 ' Access
        appString = "msAccess.exe"
End Select


IsAppRunning = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2").ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Process WHERE Name = '" & appString & "'").count > 0


End Function