Five Most Useful Types of Healthcare Apps

Everything is going mobile and there’s no reason why healthcare should be any different. In the age of dating apps, delivery apps, and streaming television, it was only a matter of time before every aspect of our lives would create a digital footprint. To that end, a number of companies and services have developed apps that help you do everything from track and monitor your blood pressure to helping you to manage your diabetes symptoms.

It all began with diet and exercise apps. Apps like my fitness pal became wildly popular as the fitness industry began embracing the use of solid data for getting solid results. The concept of using smartphones to help manage real-world goals was not new, but it was unclear how much of an impact apps could make on overall health outcomes. Now, telehealth is a regular part of daily life, with more and more hospitals, doctors, clinics, and insurers turning to apps to help manage patient data and records. But, not all healthcare apps were created equal.

Some are designed to support people suffering from specific ailments of risk factors while others are designed simply to make access to healthcare professionals easier. Regardless of your specific needs, we’ve found five apps that almost everybody should be able to use.

Virtual Visit Apps

One of the benefits of telehealth is the ability of health care providers to give more individualized care for patients who may be hesitant to make an appointment. This kind of app, designed with doctors in mind, allows physicians to use video calls to have virtual appointments with patients. This can be an invaluable resource for patients and physicians alike, boosting patients’ trust, and providing doctors with greater availability. One such app is Tripment.

Glucose, Diet, and Exercise Apps

If you’re not a diabetic this doesn’t seem like an app you would be interested in, but you would be wrong. These apps not only keep track of your glucose measurements, but also your meals, carbs, weight, blood pressure, and so much more. The benefit of this kind of app for everybody is that it can alert you trends over time and help you calculate readings like your A1C. For those who have been diagnosed with diabetes are prediabetic, or have significant risk factors for hypertension, taking control of your health is a must. These apps help to put you in the driver’s seat by providing you with concrete data, tips, and alerting you to trends that may be holding you back.

Prescription Apps

This type of app is not for the average consumer. It is, however, very useful. If your doctor doesn’t have it already, it would be worth recommending. This kind of app allows physicians to prescribe, renew a prescription, view patient medical histories, and get alerts to allergies or possible interactions in real-time. With just a few taps on their phone, your doctor can use this e-prescription app to approve pending prescriptions as well as find the most cost-effective treatments according to your insurance. Patients can also make notes alerting the doctor to side-effects that they are experiencing or asking for emergency supplies.

Medical ID Apps

In an emergency, the more information first responders have, the better your chances of survival. Having access to basic information like any known allergies to food or medicines, your blood type, and a list of your current prescriptions can increase the quality of care you receive and save valuable time during treatment. This kind of app makes all of that information available from your lock screen.

Prescription Discount Apps

While this isn’t a typical e-prescription app it is designed to help you get the most out of your pharmacy visits. These types of apps help you to find discounts and low-cost generic medicines. You can find coupons, compare prices, and track prices for your regular medications.

The current health crisis has forced the whole world to rethink how we handle healthcare. Apps that allow remote access to healthcare or provide physicians with a more complete picture of their patient’s condition will become more and more useful as we move forward. As the use of drones to deliver medicine and lab specimens become more popular, virtual doctors’ visits and the use of apps to monitor patient’s health will also become normalized.