If you have a smartphone, I’m willing to bet that you have at least one health-related mobile application installed on it. A lot of smart devices come equipped with these right out of the box.
If you have an iPhone, pull up your apps and look for the Apple Health app. That app is there by default.
You might’ve also downloaded another platform for things like exercising, diet tracking, or one that connects to a wearable device like a FitBit.
We all know that technology is changing the healthcare industry because we see and hear about the new developments every day. They streamline practices’ workflows, improve preventive care and boost patient experiences.
It makes sense why these new developments happen so often. It’s difficult enough already for a practice to manage all aspects of the patient experience while providing top-of-the-line care. On top of patient care, they have to focus on so many administrative tasks. These include patient scheduling, sending appointment reminders, and taking notes for medical records. This hardly begins to describe all of a physician’s responsibilities.
But no need to worry, as we’ve all heard before...there’s an app for that.
We’re seeing more and more mobile apps geared towards healthcare as patients value convenience and digital options. Not only do these tools make healthcare easier for patients, but they’re also improving workflows for physicians.
Here are some of the most exciting apps that are improving health, access to options, and clinical processes.
Table of Contents
Healthcare Apps for Patients
Modern-day patients want control over their care. It’s beneficial for them to stay on top of their wellness between appointments so they can avoid unnecessary services. The best way to do that is by tracking daily health metrics and conditions. This helps them become aware of any red flags that need a doctor’s attention. They’ll also recognize ways to improve routines to keep them out of the doctor’s office or hospital.
Like I already mentioned, smartphones often come with a basic app that tracks things like vitals, steps, sleep, and nutrition. But there are other platforms specific to each of these areas. Some software even connects to more intricate health devices to read and record data. And if consumers still need an appointment with a doctor, there’s an app for that, too.
8fit
8fit is a personalized fitness and meal planner. Individuals first determine their wellness goals, measure fitness levels, and record dietary preferences. They then receive customized workouts and meal plans with daily recommendations to reach their goals.
What’s more useful is that the workouts are possible to do at home without special equipment, and it explains proper form and progression. It caters toward a consumer’s dietary needs, including ingredient alternatives for each recipe. These functionalities make it possible for anyone to use the system. 8fit stays updated with current content to improve users’ experience.
For instance, they released an article for parents on how to survive quarantine with kids during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s compatible with iPhones and offers an iPad App and Apple TV App. This is a beneficial feature so users can easily watch the workouts as they do them. Consumers can also use it in conjunction with Apple Health to keep track of metrics such as weight and calories burned.
30 Day Fitness
This platform is exactly what it sounds like: a month-long fitness challenge. It eases users into their fitness routine so they can get their muscles adjusted to the workouts and start seeing progress.
There are video instructions for all routines. Individuals can view their workout history to track their achievements. Of course, they can take advantage of this plan for longer than 30 days. But the idea is that athletes will make improvements in only one month.
AllTrails
This is a little different than a typical exercise app. There are a lot of people out there who don’t enjoy vigorous workouts or can’t physically do them. Luckily, it’s still possible to get active, and AllTrails improves that experience.
Simply put, AllTrails is a guide to the outdoors. Users can explore over 100,000 trail maps, including reviews and photos from other walkers, hikers, runners, and bikers. It features paths suitable for different needs, such as:
Dog-friendly
Kid-friendly
Stroller-friendly
Wheelchair-friendly
Paved
Partially paved
Users can search for trails by the activity that they’re interested in. While it’s possible to look up any location, the home screen lists the best trails nearby. Each path includes its intensity so people find the perfect option for their fitness level. They can rate trails, save their favorites, create a list of trails, or make a custom map. By recording their route, they can also keep track of activity statistics such as elevation, moving time, and calories burned. It offers an Apple Watch App for recording these.
AllTrails is free but there’s an option to upgrade. With GPS capabilities, AllTrails Pro keeps users from getting lost during the activity. There are off-route notifications to make sure the app-holder follows the trail. This is even possible with offline maps when there’s no signal.
Its “Lifeline” feature assigns safety contacts who know the users’ plan and can track their progress. Part of the upgrade proceeds goes toward helping the environment.
What's Up
We can’t forget about mental health which continues to increase as a problem. Our mental health and physical health directly relate to each other. If one suffers, so can the other. What’s Up is a free therapy tool for coping with depression, anxiety, anger, stress, and other mental health conditions.
A few of its top features include:
12 common negative thinking patterns with methods to overcome them
Metaphors to help cope with negative feelings
A diary to keep thoughts and feelings
Positive and negative habits tracker
A game with questions to ground users when stress takes over
Breathing techniques for relaxation
Positive quotes
Users can customize their personal platform’s theme for what best suits them. They can sync data between devices so they don’t lose it.
Calm
Listed as the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation, Calm improves mindfulness. It includes guided meditation, sleep stories, relaxing music, and breathing and stretching exercises. These all help improve sleep and lower stress and anxiety. Many psychologists, therapists, and mental health experts recommend this tool.
It connects with Apple Health to save meditation and sleep sessions.
Ovia Health
Ovia Health has several software options for women’s health. The Ovia Pregnancy Tracker is an app for all things pregnancy-related. Expectant mothers can watch their baby grow with different tools. It compares the baby’s weekly size to a fruit, vegetable, or dessert. Moms can see their baby’s hand and foot size during each stage compared to the average size at birth.
Women can track daily progress like weight, exercise, nutrition, symptoms, sleep, and mood. It also includes information about what foods and medications are safe for consumption by the mother and what nutrients boost the baby’s health.
A calendar helps users stay organized with things such as appointment reminders and baby bump photos. The platform offers a supportive community of other moms so women can get answers to any questions. So far, the app has garnered over 2,000 pregnancy-related articles, tips, and tools to support expectant mothers.
Ovia Health also offers Ovia Fertility & Cycle Tracker. Women record their daily data to receive fertility window predictions and feedback on symptoms. They can access related articles and ask anonymous questions. A user can share her fertility data with her partner through a data export option, and she can protect her account with a PIN.
One Drop Mobile
Ranked as one of the top three diabetes apps worldwide, patients can use One Drop Mobile in conjunction with the One Drop diabetes kit. This includes a Bluetooth-enabled glucose meter that sends readings right to the app. Diabetics can also get test strips delivered right to their door.
Patients don’t need the kit to use the app, though. They can manually add their data to the mobile system which has 24/7 real-time access to a personal diabetes coach. One Drop Mobile includes a personalized daily schedule with reminders to help manage the condition.
It keeps track of and saves history metrics such as blood sugar, medication, meals, activity, weight, and blood pressure. There’s even an artificial intelligence-powered technology within it that predicts future blood sugar trends. This feature includes recommendations for keeping blood sugar in the personal target range.
Its food database helps diabetics manage what they eat. Patients can search the library or scan barcodes to find foods. They can then easily calculate carbs and other nutritional information. It offers the option to save meals for the future.
Kardia
This is another software used in connection with a separate health monitoring device. It works with the FDA-cleared KardiaMobile or KardiaMobile 6L. These are both clinically-validated EKG solutions available to consumers. The user touches the sensors on this device which then captures a medical-grade EKG.
The app records this information from the device. Patients can send the readings to their physician or one of the company’s partners for a clinical review by a cardiologist.
Ada
This private and secured software helps users manage their health with a symptom checker. They do this through a personalized, AI-powered health assessment.
After the questionnaire, Ada assesses the potential problem and gives relevant options. Doctors and scientists developed this app, so it includes thousands of symptoms and conditions.
OTCme
I’m sure many of us have a cabinet full of medicine that we’ve barely touched since buying or never used. It might look like we have a mini-pharmacy in our homes. If you don’t have this yourself, I’m sure you at least know someone who hangs onto their prescriptions no matter how old they are.
But OTCme reduces buying over-the-counter products that you don’t need in the first place. Consumers click on their symptoms, and the system searches through OTC medications at major pharmacies. It saves time for patients so they don’t need to browse aisles and read confusing labels, then waste money on a product that can’t even treat their symptoms.
The app is free, anonymous, and doesn’t require an account. It asks for age so that it doesn’t recommend a children’s medication for an adult, and vice versa. It’s possible to filter by brand and dose, sort by flavor and reviews, compare prices, and access coupons. It links to FDA and manufacturer information and shows medication labels.
GoodRX
Price transparency for health services is a rising trend, especially now that hospitals must post prices online. But this is moving into pharmaceuticals, too. GoodRx is completely free and has options for everyone in the family, including pets.
The goal of this startup is to get consumers to stop overpaying for prescriptions. Most people don’t realize how much prescription prices can vary, but GoodRx allows comparing prices and finding coupons. It provides current cash and sale prices, manufacturer coupons, pharmacy discounts, and saving tips. There’s an option to upgrade for even more savings.
HealthTap
Telehealth is another increasing trend for so many reasons. But it doesn’t matter what the reason is for using the service; patients everywhere should have the option for it.
And now, they do. Patients can get free personalized medical information and guidance at any time with HealthTap. They’re able to check their symptoms with the AI-powered chatbot (that we discussed in more detail in this blog post), and access care guidelines for conditions. Patients can also submit questions to get a doctor’s response within 24 hours and search for other asked questions and answers.
If the patient needs to see a doctor, they can set up a virtual visit with a US-based, board-certified physician. The doctor can fill prescriptions, order lab tests, or refer the patient to a specialist. Users get unlimited visits for just $119 per year, but the other app features are free.
Heal
There’s no denying that it’s convenient to talk to doctors without actually having to drive to their office. Telehealth virtual visits help with this, as I hinted at in the section above. But what if I told you that your doctor could also drive to you?
The Heal software makes that possible. Not only can patients schedule a telehealth appointment, but they can also get an in-home visit. If there’s availability in the patient’s area, the Heal Doctor can schedule a house call to the home.
This benefits both the patient and the doctor. Sometimes, patients are too sick to get to an appointment. Or if they’re recovering from surgery, it might not be possible. It limits their exposure to more germs and prevents them from getting other patients sick. The physician can also note any environmental factors in the home that could be contributing to the patient’s condition.
Healthcare Apps For Providers
Mobile platforms don’t only benefit patients. Doctors and practices have so many tasks that need their focus. The amount of work can be overwhelming and cause them to get behind in some areas. Balancing everything can cause stress and lead to burnout.
But having technology applications to help with tasks can minimize their workloads. This way, they can focus on what’s truly important: caring for and interacting with their patients.
Doximity
Doximity allows for faster access to tools that physicians use every day by keeping them all in one place. Doctors can call patients from their cell on this platform without needing to dial *67. Instead, it will display the office’s number. They can also send HIPAA secure faxes from anywhere and use the app to sign, date, and annotate documents.
What’s most notable about Doximity is its social networking functionalities. It includes a social newsfeed so doctors can keep up with the latest clinical news in their specialty. They can search the largest directory of US clinicians based on specialty, locations, and clinical interests. This enables access to the office information for any other practice.
Not only can they search for other clinician and office information, but they can connect with others. This helps them reconnect with former medical school classmates, co-residents, co-fellows, or colleagues. With burnout becoming a rising issue, we know that staying in touch with others is so important. Sharing their experiences can help these doctors overcome any issues they’re facing.
Spruce
This HIPAA-compliant communication tool improves care outside of the exam room. It keeps all tools for communicating with patients right in the doctor’s pocket. With Spruce, doctors have access to their business phone lines, secure video calling, fax, secure messaging, and SMS texting all in one place.
It has the option for bulk messaging, template messages, and scheduled messages. We know how important it is for patients to get appointment reminders so they don’t forget about their upcoming visit. With the ability to schedule reminders using a templated message, doctors save time so they can focus on other, more pressing issues.
Equipped with telemedicine questionnaires, physicians can quickly evaluate their patients’ needs when apart. The free patient app with this software makes it even easier for connection and messaging.
Epocrates
The prescribing process can be daunting, but Epocrates eases this task. Through its drug interaction checker, providers can prevent harmful interactions between other drugs. It includes a pill identifier, dosing calculation tools, and drug coverage information by state.
Epocrates is free, but providers can upgrade for just $16.99 per month to receive more features. These include peer-reviewed disease content, labs, ICD-10 codes, and more medical content.
Figure 1
Sometimes doctors have to treat conditions they’ve never seen before. They need quick access to other professionals’ knowledge on how to handle these. That’s where Figure 1 comes in.
It gives free, instant access to real-world medical cases from specialty professionals. This allows medical professionals to expand their clinical knowledge through viewing and discussing unique cases. These de-identified cases ensure the security and privacy of information.
Medici
Medici connects providers to patients outside of the office while generating new income options. This program’s secure messaging, video, and calling system allows for virtual consultations that doctors set their own rates for.
It reduces administrative costs and eliminates time-consuming tasks after seeing patients all day. Doctors can chat with patients, and also colleagues for feedback and advice. The group chat feature makes it possible to talk with a patient and up to 10 colleagues for more input.
One other unique aspect is that it offers up to $1 million in professional liability coverage. This way, doctors still have protection for the advice and services provided to their patients.
PEPID
PEPID gives all health professionals the tools that they need to treat patients fast whether it’s at the scene, bedside, or during transport. It speeds up processes to treat the patient quicker.
Some of its many features include:
Pill identifier
Drug interaction database
Allergy checker
Dosage calculator
ICD lookup
Labs
Health professionals can store notes within PEPID as well. Physicians, nurses, students, pharmacists, paramedics, and more health professionals all use this service. It improves instant treatment since the tools are accessible from anywhere, so providers can make safe decisions fast.
Conclusion
Being able to manage our health and wellness from a tool in our pocket is improving healthcare in many aspects. Consumers can take control of their care by focusing on personal daily routines and metrics to improve their health.
This makes it easier for patients and physicians to understand signs that need further attention before the problem gets worse. Patients don’t necessarily need to visit their doctor in person either. They can set up a meeting with a doctor from anywhere with these modern-day technologies.
But patients aren’t the only ones who want better healthcare options, which is why there are also apps geared toward physicians. These improve processes to decrease the burden of administrative tasks and enhance treatment. Some provide continued medical education so professionals stay informed and can improve care. This way, doctors never fall behind the ever-changing industry.
