Features
Luke Dormehl
12:10, 23 Sep 2013
All the best heath and well being apps for Android and iOS in one place
The opposite of a killer app would presumably be one that saves your life. While there is no substitute for proper, face-to-face medical advice delivered by a human doctor, when it comes to helping diagnose ailments, offering life-saving advice, or even aiding licensed doctors by pulling up new medical articles, and reminding which drugs don’t work with one another, medical apps are truly changing the way medicine is practiced.
Without further ado, then, here is Know Your Mobile’s list of the best medical apps around. Best thing of all, nearly every one of them is free...
FIRST AID BY BRITISH RED CROSS
Available for both Android and iPhone, First Aid By British Red Cross may not have the catchiest app title that’s ever been created, but it does exactly what it says on the tin. Simple and life-saving, FABBRC will help guide you through eighteen of the most common emergency situations in which medical first aid is required.
There are videos and interactive quizzes along with the step-by-step instructions, as well as info links to find out more about the life-saving work carried out by the British Red Cross. Although the emergency numbers used throughout the app are for UK users, the info is relevant wherever you might be.
MEDSCAPE
Available for both Android and iPhone, Medscape is the app of choice for healthcare professionals. Regularly the most downloaded medical app on both platforms, this nifty tool is essentially the Physicians’ Desk Reference in app form: offering a constantly updated growing database featuring 7,000+ drug references, 3,500+ disease clinical references, 2,500+ clinical images and procedure videos, a sturdy drug interaction tool checker, and far more. The closest you’ll get to having a senior doctor in your pocket.
WEBMD FOR MOBILE
For both Android and iPhone, WebMD for Mobile has several functions which make it stand out. Not only is there personalised health tracking (that pulls up relevant facts and articles) and a guide to local pharmacies and hospitals, but also a Symptom Checker that covers everything from insect bites and stings, to miscellaneous aches and pains.
Benefitting from five years of user insights and feedback -- and catering to a sizable portion of the WebMD Health Network’s 95 million unique monthly visitors -- WebMD for Mobile isn’t a replacement for proper medical advice from a doctor, but it is an invaluable tool nonetheless.
MEDTUBE MEDICAL VIDEOS
For Android and iPhone, MEDtube -- like Medscape -- is aimed at medical professionals, although medical students could also use it. The largest collection of educational medical videos available online, MEDtube Medical Videos is a medical multimedia library featuring more than 11,000 videos. These range from surgical videos, animations and visualisations, interviews with medical practitioners, presentations and academic lectures, to case studies, podcasts and a plethora of other professional video materials across a range of disciplines. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be watching funny cat videos on YouTube.
MYFITNESSPAL CALORIE COUNTER
Available for both iPhone and Android, MyFitnessPal’s name alone suggests that this is not limited to simply a medical app. As a tool designed for losing weight, this is one of the best calorie counter apps available, however, with one of the largest food databases of any app, an in-built barcode scanner and incredibly easy-to-use user interface.
In addition, MyFitnessPal syncs up with the website of the same name (user information is stored online so it won’t be lost in the event that you switch phones or accidentally delete the app), which means that users can access their information from their phone, computer or tablet wherever they go. All this plus it can track your exercise. No wonder it was named Wired Magazine’s Editor’s Pick for Lifestyle Apps!
HEALTHTAP
For both Android and iPhone, HealthTap provides answers and tips from 47,000 licensed United States doctors without having to worry about a waiting room. With fast, trustworthy, personalised (and -- as with nearly all of the apps on this list -- free) advice, bespoke answers can be given on any symptom, condition, health concern or medication.
If you need to take your request out of the virtual world and in to the actual one, there’s even the possibility of scheduling a time to see more than 1.2 million doctors in person right from the app. Crowdsourcing at its finest.
CALCULATE BY GXMD
Available as an app for both Android and iPhone, Calculate by QxMD is another app designed for the medical professional. Calculate is a clinical calculator and decision support tool that sets the bar for every medical calculator out there. From carrying out basic BMI calculations to more complex medical asks, Calculate isn’t just about calculating numbers, but can actually help make decisions. Its layout is also among the best of its kind. The future of algorithmic medicine.
MATERIA MEDICA LITE
The first app on our list to be available on just one platform, Materia Medica Lite is a homeopathic app for Android. Allowing users to browse through homeopathic remedies by remedy or ailment.
Materia Medica Lite might be the free version of a paid app, but it doesn’t feel like a cut-rate demo version. In addition to remedies, it also features homeopathy lectures and remedy relationships. Homeopathy may not be for everyone, but this is nonetheless among the best homeopathic apps on the market.
POCKET FIRST AID AND CPR
It might be a paid app (although at £1.49 it’s hardly going to break the bank), but Know Your Mobile had to include this iPhone app from the American Heart Foundation if only because it has what might be the single most impressive endorsement of any medical app in existence.
When documentary filmmaker Dan Woolley was in Haiti in January 2010 shooting a video about poverty, he was caught in a major earthquake. Awakening after being knocked out, to find himself in a pitch-black hotel lobby with blood gushing from the back of his head, Woolley used Pocket First Aid and CPR’s instructions to fashion a bandage and tourniquet for his leg, while also using the iPhone’s alarm clock to stop him from falling into shock. Sixty-five hours later a French rescue team saved him. Download it now.
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