Next to the stethoscope and the syringe, your mobile device just might become one of your doctor's best tools for checking up on your health. There are many apps on all major devices that you can download that will do more than just give you reminders for when to exercise and how to eat right, but will actually count your steps and give you updates on how you are doing on an exercise regimen. In the near future, the addition of wearable devices could even allow your phone to directly measure your vitals, including heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure. Until then, App developers are working hard to make sure today's apps keep people healthy, and out of the hospital's sick ward. Here are the top health app articles from the past week alone, which show just how quickly Apps are becoming a staple for healthcare.
iHealth Lab Inc., the developers behind Apple's HealthKit, which was included on the iPhone 6 devices, has announced nine new apps to add to their suite of mobile health software, supported by the update of iOS 8.02. Apple's HealthKit unifies these apps into a one-stop wellness center, and the addition of apps like Gluco-Smart (which helps regulate blood glucose) will add more power to the program. Soon, the company hopes on being able to measure fifteen key vital readings, including sleep analysis, weight, BMI, body fat, blood pressure, heart rate, steps, oxygen saturation, distance, active calories and others.
The HealthKit is also supplemented by numerous third-party apps, which help gather information for the HealthKit to process. Just last week, the Jawbone Up app was released that is designed to interact with Jawbone's already market-leading fitness tracker as well as Apple's HealthKit. By wirelessly collecting information from Jawbone's fitness tracker, this new app will be able to compile that information with HealthKit to determine your next steps for an exercise regime. Like a digital personal trainer, this app will take into account everything from the amount of nightly sleep to the number of daily steps to steer the user towards a healthy lifestyle.
Meanwhile, Catavolt just launched a health app aimed at bringing medical records directly to doctor's tablet devices for fast and efficient healthcare. In addition to connecting the hospital's own tablets to the patient's Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, the program even connects doctors' own smartphones to the network in case they need access to the information on their own time. Of course, a “no data at rest” policy ensures that this information is never actually saved or stored anywhere other than in the hospital's own private facilities.
Physicians will also be happy to know that the Physicians Practice medical resource is now available as a free app for iOS devices. For nearly a quarter of a century, Physicians Practice has given the medical field both practical and business advice, and the shift to an electronic format seems to be an indicator that the medical industry as a whole will need to embrace EHR data storage techniques, as well as mobile devices for instant data access.
