Following on from our previous blog: 10 Top Apps for Healthcare Professionals, we set our attention to the patients themselves.
While these medical apps shouldn't replace a routine trip to the Doctor, they may just make your life a little easier.
1. Diabetes:M
Keeping track of diabetes is essential to keeping it under control and Diabetes:M helps perfectly by being the logbook app you need.
The app includes a vast nutrition database so you can keep track of food and nutrition as well as exercise time. With detailed reports, charts and statistics provided on almost all aspects of the diabetes treatment, Diabetes:M could well be a valuable addition if you need help keeping it under control.
iOS/Android/Free to download - premium versions available
Features:
- Calculate normal and prolonged insulin boluses using the highly effective, top-notch bolus calculator
- Send the reports to your supervising physician via email
- Additional lab result records - Add a comprehensive metabolic panel, kidney function tests and much more
- Expanded Food Database – This will allow greater access to server food database, as well as an option to save selected food as Meals and Dishes
- Synchronization – Automatically sync multiple devices on data change. Allows you to use any of your available mobile devices to keep track effortlessly.
- Reports - Get your reports in PDF or XLS format
2. St John Ambulance First Aid
The first aid app from the extremely reputable St John Ambulance is a simple but potentially life saving one. It's basic, simple and doesn't necessarily replace the benefits of learning first hand first hand, but what it does, it does right. When there is an emergency the app will help you know what to do in those crucial moments when basic knowledge is needed.
Features:
- Latest first aid advice and protocols for dealing with emergency situations
- Simple to follow with illustrated guides and voiced instructions
- Teaches common techniques such as using an AED, the recovery position, and treating shock
- Covers both major and minor subjects in an easy to find category layout system. Major subjects include burns, choking, poisoning and strokes, while minor subjects include allergic reactions and feeling faint
3. iTriage
iTriage is a huge healthcare and medical database where you can search for answers to do with medication, diseases, symptoms and procedures. It was created by two ER doctors and the medical content is reviewed by Harvard Medical School to prove its authenticity and how safe it is.
Over 12 million people have downloaded iTriage giving it a 4.5 star rating from over 100k reviews proving that it is a well known and loved app that can perhaps put your mind at ease or potentially save your life. It may sound dramatic but with critical warnings included with some causes depending on the issue, it could well be the motivation you need to get you to the doctor.
Features:
- You can search symptoms, learn about potential causes, and then iTriage will help you find the most appropriate treatment, facility or doctor
- iTriage Doctor Search lets you find any doctor or physician quickly and easily
- Thousands of medical symptoms, diseases, conditions, procedures, medications and drugs
- Find the nearest hospital, emergency room, urgent care, retail clinic, pharmacy, physician, doctor, imaging center, mental health clinic, substance abuse clinic, and community health center
- Save your personal healthcare facilities, doctors, diseases, conditions, procedures, medications, insurance information and health plan advice lines
- Emergency hotlines, and physician and nurse advice lines
4. Instant Heart Rate: Heart Rate & Pulse Monitor
Continuously rated as the world's best mobile heart rate measurement app, Instant Heart Rate can measure your heart rate by using the camera on your phone.
It works by detecting a colour change in your finger top each time your heart beats, using an advanced algorithm to show your heart rate. Judging by the reviews and Apple's usability of the app in its "Strength" TV ad, Instant Heart Rate produces accurate results - especially coming from a smartphone.
iOS/Android/Free/ £4.99 - 'ad free'/Premium models
Features:
- Heart rate measurement
- Heart Rate Activity Zone Calculator
- Pulse waveform graphs
- Real-time photoplethysmogram (PPG) graph
- Continuous or Auto-Stop mode
- Unlimited data storage and tags
- Export data for registered users
- StandUp test for fatigue and fitness testing
- Apple Health App Support
5. BabyBump Pregnancy Pro
BabyBump is one of the many popular pregnancy apps out there but we've chosen this on in particular due to it's ease of use, many features, and it's reviews.
BabyBump keeps soon-to-be parents informed about each stage of the pregnancy, making for an even more in-depth experience that you can track and share with family and friends. The forums and community are a great inclusion to help you get prepared for the big day and years to come.
Features:
- Pregnancy forums
- Countdown
- Daily info/images - schematic embryo picture of your baby each week
- Journal/weight tracking
- Graphical charts
- Contraction tracker
- Kicks counter
- Create a slideshow of belly photos
6. CareZone | Health Info Organiser
If you and/or family members need medications, it can be hard remembering names, dosages and days that they need to be taken, especially if you're looking after an aging parent. This is where CareZone comes in.
With CareZone you can stay organised, coordinated, and in sync by always having medication details and schedules on hand, and helpfully gives you notifications when it's time to take a med, refill a subscription or record a taken dose. Being able to create a detailed med list by taking photos is another great and time saving idea - making this app the full package.
Features:
- Journal: document symptoms and privately share updates with family members
- Calendar: keep track of appointments and share access with others
- Contacts: organise & share info for doctors, pharmacies, and insurance providers
- Notes: store insurance info, online account credentials, and other hard-to-remember details
- To-do lists
- Store important files and documents
- News: receive helpful info & tips on health topics relevant to you and your family
7. Migraine Buddy
Hopefully you don't suffer with migraines, but if you do, it needs be dealt with in the quickest and easiest way. Ideally the migraine would be prevented in the first place.
Features:
- Easy to use, beautifully designed interface and icons with wizard style questionnaires that guides users through the recording process
- Record ongoing and past migraines
- Quick tapping motion to answer the questionnaire
- Quick access to skip and record entries at a later time
- Add a "Buddy": Share your migraine status with your "buddies" within the app. Let each other know when you're migraine-free, having a migraine, and how you feel.
- Notes section to add additional information such as food, weather conditions, barometric pressure, mood, etc.
- Add custom fields to the questionnaire so it becomes a permanent option for users
- Customized reports including frequency and duration, pain intensity, pain location, migraine triggers, migraine medications, migraine symptoms and helps to understand the effectiveness of medication and other migraine relief methods
- Data is secured and protected by HIPAA-compliant cloud
8. Calm: Meditation to Relax, Focus & Sleep Better
High stress levels? Perhaps meditation is the way forward - even on a (usually) distracting smartphone.
Once you have download the app for free, you get a 7 day course of guided-meditation exercises, with more programs and features becoming available after buying a reasonably priced subscription. If you feel like you need to take a step back away for 10 minutes a day from an increasingly busy and stressful world, or if you need to work on topics such as calming anxiety, happiness, or non-judgment, then Calm is the app for you.
iOS/Android/Free/In-app subscriptions
Features:
- Daily Calm: a new 10-minute program added daily to help ease you into the day or unwind with before bed
- Guided meditation sessions including hundreds of programs
- 20+ Sleep Stories: adult bedtime stories guaranteed to lull you to sleep
- 7 day and 21 programs for both beginner and advanced users
- Breathing exercises to relax
- Unguided timed meditation
- Open-ended meditation
- 25+ soothing nature sounds and scenes to use during meditation, yoga or to help you sleep
- Track your progress with daily streaks and time spent meditating
9. Bowelle - The IBS tracker
Bowelle is for those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or other gastrointestinal symptoms and is a simple to use app that keeps a record of how you feel, bowel movements, and other elements.
The app was made in hope that it helps identify some of the triggers causing your symptoms - and with such a clear and easy to use app that is completely clear of ads, it could certainly be a useful tracker.
iOS/Free
Features:
- Records how you feel, food & water intake, stress levels, bowel movements
- Charts
- Daily average
- Overview
- Works with Apple Health
10. My Pain Diary & Symptom Tracker: Gold Edition
My Pain Diary does exactly what it says on the tin. With the app you are able to record pain and symptoms you get, to report to and improve communication with doctors.
An incredibly useful app for a chronic pain sufferer, this highly customisable and well thought out app can create PDF reports to send to your doctor or archive, so you both have a better idea on how to help yourself.
iOS/ £4.99
Features:
- iCloud Sync support
- Universal app
- Highly customizable
- Easy to use
- Track unlimited conditions
- Track multiple/unlimited times per day
- Add past entries (change entry timestamp)
- Edit past entries
- Medication tracking
- Reports
- Note important events