Phone apps is where digital technology and healthy lifestyle meet. Smart phone makers and users will agree that the merger is almost made in heaven! Nothing is as easy as counting calories or timing contractions with your mobile phone. An April 2010 estimate placed the number of iPhone apps at almost 185,000 and according to data from AdMob, the rapidly growing app market is worth nearly two and a half billion dollars a year.
We have compiled a list of our favorite health apps into seven categories. The apps described here are usually for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, but there are similar apps for the other phone operating systems. The best thing to do is try out the free apps first and then move on the paid apps. Some apps are also available for a free try out for a limited period of time.
(1) Personal Health Records (PHRs)
Cloud PHR Pro – Cost: $2.99, is an advanced, native iPhone client for Google Health, Google’s Personal Health Record (PHR). If you don’t already have a Google Health account, you’ll definitely want to sign up first.
ExpressWELL – Cost: $0.99, helps you manage your personal medical information. It’s designed to be used when you visit your doctor, as an at-a-glance summary of your critical medical history, and as a reference tool throughout your visit.
My Life Record- Cost: $49.99, allows you to keep track of your medical records like never before possible. Everything from medical imaging, charts, medications and even lab results can now be accessed and shared all via your iPhone.
SOS 4 Life – Cost: L3.49, stores and translates your health and medical data into 10 languages perfect for travellers with existing or new medical conditions. So, when in Rome, you’ll do what the Romans do!
(2) Nutrition & Weight Loss
Calorie Tracker – Cost: $2.99, weight, calorie intake, and exercise are all taken into consideration. A minus is that WiFi is needed to access the big databases.
iWeight Deluxe – Cost: $0.99, helps track your weight and reach your weight goal. It comes with a calendar that can store data on weight, exercise, calories and water intake. Extras include gym location info and other relevant health topics.
Nutrition menu – Cost: $9.99, provides all the nutritional info you ever want about common food items – calories, fat, carbs, sugar, protein, sodium and fiber – are all in this app. This is also for those who love to eat out but want to plan calorie intake in advance as it contains more than 33,000 menus from more than 320 restaurants in the US and Canada.
VegOut- Cost: $2.99, every vegetarian knows that eating out can be a difficult task. VegOut makes this task easier by providing you with the world’s largest international listing of vegan, vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants.
(3) Fitness and exercise
AllSport GPS – Cost: $4.99, consumers can use their GPS-enabled cell phones to navigate trails and highways, track their fitness performance, geocache, and create, manage and share those experiences with others.
CardioTrainer – Cost: Free, is a next-generation mobile fitness application that can be your virtual training partner for running, biking, hiking, skiing or just about any outdoor activity you can imagine.
Fitness Builder- Cost: $9.99, is the most comprehensive fitness database in the world. It contains the largest library of exercise images & videos, the most challenging workouts across all disciplines, access to a live personal trainer and a complete set of every fitness tool, calculator and tracking feature available.
iFitness- Cost: $1.99, gives pictures and instructions on more than 130 exercise and exercise regimes. By identifying your problem areas, the software can recommend a personalized fitness training program for you.
IMapMy – Cost: Free, is an app for bikers and runners which helps them track their exercise complete with maps and GPS. However, when using GPS, the app doesn’t have enough battery life for long biking trips.
iNewLeaf – Cost: By subscription with various rates up to $179.95US annually, takes the results of your metabolic data and turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a fitness tracker/monitor. Your workouts, heart rate zones, caloric expenditures are automatically synced when you set up your iNewLeaf account.
(4) Living with Medical Issues
Cancer Terms Pro – Cost: $1.99, maintains a database of thousands of treatment, prevention, diagnosis, alternative and oncological terms.
Glucose Buddy – Cost: Free, claims to be the ultimate diabetes helper. Users can manually enter glucose numbers, carbohydrate consumption, insulin dosages, and other activities. Your medical data is stored securely and can be synced with your glucosebuddy.com account.
iBP – Cost: $0.99, is similar to the app HeartWise but with better graphic options. It gives a morning- afternoon summary of BP measurements as well as long-term trends (weeks, months or up to 1 year). Color icons indicate when values are high.
iChemoDiary – Cost: Free, a recent review by About.com summarizes this app succinctly. “If I had to choose one app to manage chemotherapy treatment, this would be it. Designed by drug maker Merck, iChemoDiary helps you to track chemotherapy appointments, manage medication schedules, and record side effects and symptoms that you may experience.
iHealth Log – Cost: $1.99, designed to help manage the ever changing medications, and then compare and report measured results with the effects of the medicines.
iTriage- Cost: Free, is healthcare in your hand. With iTriage you have access to medical information from over 300 symptoms, 1000 diseases and 350 medical procedures.
Medical Encyclopedia – Cost: Free, the University of Maryland Medical Center has assembled 50000 pages of in-depth information including diseases, symptoms, injuries, surgeries, nutrition and tests.
myCheckUp – Cost: $1.99, tracks your heart rate, weight, and other data including a daily journal which can be shared with your healthcare professional at your next checkup. Nifty!
SleepTracker- Cost: Free, tracks your sleep patterns, and identifies patterns of behavior that result in better or more restless sleep, from drinking warm milk to uncomfortable temperatures.
SymptomChecker.MD – Cost: Free, differs from all other symptom checker apps because it gives you trusted medical search results PLUS matches these results to local doctors and specialists.
(5) Drugs & Meds
iPharmacy – Cost: $0.99, claims to be the most complete collection of info on medications, including their official prescribing info as approved by the FDA.
iPills – Cost: Free, is a simple medication tracker app. Get a complete record of all the medicines you’ve taken, and any scheduled ones you’ve missed!
iRxHelper – Cost: $1.99, is created specifically to help you track your prescriptions. By entering your prescription information into the application, the program will show you which prescriptions need to be refilled within a week (an adjustable value).
Meds Family – Cost: $2.99, is a simple way to manage medications for the whole family and allows you to enter and track all medications organized by family members.
(6) Pregnancy & ChildCare
BabyBrain – Cost: $4.99, is the ultimate iPhone and iPod App for parents. Track feedings, diapers and sleep right on your iPhone. Built by, and for, caring parents.
BabyBump – Cost: $4.99, tracks your pregnancy up to the delivery date and gives details of baby’s development, size, and weight on a weekly basis. It also describes the common pregnancy symptoms. The kick counter and the contraction tracker are nice extras. And it is also available in Spanish and French.
FertilityFriend- Cost: Free, offers the Menstrual Calendar which is a simple and easy to use calendar designed to predict your menstrual cycles and possible fertile days.
Pregnancy Alarm – Cost $9.99, is an ovulation calendar that helps you plan or avoid pregnancy. It claims to be the most downloaded ovulation calendar.
Total Baby- Cost: $4.99, will help you log and time all aspects of your child’s care through a smart and sleek interface that makes tracking easy and fun.
(7) First Aid and Emergency
American Medical Aid – Cost:$2.99, is the authoritative reference of “WHAT TO DO” when faced with a medical need, emergency or other wise.
CPR & Choking – Cost: Free, provides videos that help you know what to do if someone you know is undergoing a medical emergency or cardiac episode.
EMT ICE- Cost: $2.99, wouldn’t it be nice to have emergency information available on our phone in case of an accident or incident that leaves us unable to communicate serious medial needs or issues. The ICE iPhone application provides emergency personnel or EMT’s vital information that might save your life.
Pocket First Aid & CPR Guide – Cost: $3.99, can be your electronic health record on the go. Info such as medical conditions, blood types, medications, allergies, doctors’ contacts can be stored. However, since these info are usually password-protected, these can’t be accessed and are therefore useless when the phone owner is unconscious. Links to first aid treatment such as CPR are available.
ResQr- Cost: $3.99, real-time, step-by-step emergency first aid instructions that empower you to be the rescuer in any situation.
Digital mobile health is here! And don’t forget to write reviews about the apps. Only from your feedback can the developers improve their apps and come up with better and more innovative versions.
Health Apps You Can’t Live Without
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