WebMD Introduces New Allergy App

WebMD sure is trying to make a name for themselves in the mHealth world. In addition to the other apps they released last year, they just added another app to that suite. This time, it focuses on allergies.

I think that everyone probably knows someone that has some kind of allergy, or even suffers from one themselves. My husband has seasonal allergies, and my son has several food allergies. While this app is geared more toward people who suffer from allergies themselves, I think just about anyone could benefit from it.

The app features a few different sections, which include:

  • Allergy Forecast: Allergy levels specific for your location that are regularly updated. You can also look up the “allergy forecast” for places you are visiting.
  • Personalized Forecasts and Tips: After indicating which allergies you and/or your family suffer from, the app will give you tips on how to manage those allergies.
  • Allergies 101: This includes WebMD’s library of allergy related resources — articles, photos, and videos. It focuses on seven categories: Outdoor, indoor, skin, drug, food, insect bites and stinks, and latex.
  • Timely Alerts: This helps you plan your days, and know if certain triggers will be worse, according to the allergy forecast.

The part of this app I think makes this one everyone should download is Allergies 101. You never know when you will be around someone when they have an allergic reaction to something, and being able to quickly access information may be important. As a parent, and especially because I have a child with allergies, I feel it’s important to be able to access that information at a moment’s notice. It would be easier to go straight to this app, rather than messing around with Google.

It’s fun to see WebMD coming out with new apps fairly regularly. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of WebMD, and I love using their apps.

This app can be downloaded for iOS for free here.

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April 3, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Apple  Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPad  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones
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SlimKicker Turns Tracking Food and Exercise Into a Game

If incentives cause people to lose weight, does competition do it as well? Well, SlimKicker, might prove if that is true as well.

At first glance, SlimKicker looks like just about any other food and exercise diary. You can enter exercise, food, and track your weight and other goals. However, it hosts different challenges that its users can join, and some of them yield actual prizes — not just badges like many sites have. Many of the challenges give you points for winning, which I will talk about next.

SlimKicker is similar to Weight Watchers in the sense that is point-based. However, instead of losing points for the foods you eat, you get them. The healthier the food, the more points you get. And what can you use the points for? From what I can tell, you can redeem them for prizes, but I have yet to figure out

One of my favorite parts of SlimKicker is the visualization aspect of it. You can upload a photo of the rewards that you want, when you reach a certain goal our level. When you reach those, SlimKicker lets you know, and you can redeem the reward. While it is up to you to provide the reward “promised,” it’s a nice reminder to see a reward whenever you login.

SlimKicker’s goal is to help its users keep motivation. How many of us have gotten all revved up about a new exercise regimen, or diet, only to give up on it a week later? I know I’m not the only one. With the challenges and inspiration feed that SlimKicker has, it is easier to stay motivated.

I know I talk a lot about food and exercise trackers here, but there are just so many, and to be honest, many of them have really unique features. One of the best ways to stay healthy, and out of the doctor’s office, is by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and by using these websites and apps, you can do just that.

There is a free app for iOS devices, which can be downloaded here.

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March 25, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Apple  Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare Social Media  iPad  iPhone  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring
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NetPulse Brings Fitness Apps and Equipment Into One Place

I’ve talked about a lot of different devices that were created to track (and help users meet) fitness and health goals. With all the options, it can get kind of overwhelming!  Especially when you have to transfer the information from your fitness device, to your food and exercise tracker. There’s a new platform that aims to simplify all this data into one place, making it easier to track.

NetPulse is similar to Microsoft’s HealthVault that I recently talked about. Working with several third-party apps, as well as fitness equipment workers, NetPulse brings them all together in one platform and helps them work together to help users reach their ultimate fitness goals.

These companies have fitness equipment assocated with NetPulse:

  • LifeFitness
  • Woodway
  • Matrix
  • Octane
  • TechnoGym
  • True
  • StarTrac

And the 3rd party apps that are working with NetPulse include:

  • MyFitnessPal
  • MapMyFitness
  • FitBit
  • CarePass

I was excited to see a couple of very well-known apps that can be used at NetPulse. I think that was a smart move to try and get those companies on board, because to me, they seem like the apps that most people probably use. MyFitnessPal is definitely my favorite food and exercise tracker, and if I were to want to use something like NetPulse, the fact that MyFitnessPal would be a determining factor.

One additional feature that NetPulse has that I thought was neat is the club app. It allows you to check out class schedules and track your exercise at your fitness club. While it works best if your club has fitness equipment that is compatible with NetPulse, even if it doesn’t, the xCapture feature lets you take pictures of the end-of-workout stats to record late. You get credit for checking out the class schedules, and all types of workouts can be tracked.

After you’ve set up your account, you can start to find out what NetPulse is all about. You can set up fitness and health goals to be tracked, sign up for challenges, and compete, team up, and encourage others.

This is really cool, and I think people that are really passionate about using mobile technology to track their exercise and nutrition will really get a lot of out of this. I’ll definitely be interested in trying it out once it’s available for the public!

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March 22, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones  Social Networking Health
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Smart Phones and mHealth Apps May Be Taxable

Do you love using your smart phone for medical purposes? Chances are, if you’re reading this, you probably do. Well, it sounds like Obamacare might just take some of the fun out of it.

According to Fox News, under the ACA, medical device manfacturers carry a 2.3 percent tax. And since smart phones and tablets can be used for medical reasons, they might just fall under that as well. And apparently, the FDA has indicated they are looking into this regulation. And Rep. Marsha Blackburn, vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said back in 2011 that this is not good news for consumers:

It is going to drive up the cost to consumers and it’ll drive up the cost of your cell phone.

I don’t know about you, but my cell phone bill is already way too high — and my husband and I even split the bill with my mom, dad, and little brother. Even the thought of possibly being taxed makes me want to get rid of any of my mHealth apps and devices. Of course, I won’t, because I really use them, but I do hope that this doesn’t actually happen.

I can’t imagine there is anything positive about this, but if you can think of any, please, enlighten me. I think that this will make many people turned off to the idea of mHealth, because I know that at least for me, using my smart phone to help manage my health is, in part, to help me save money. Adding a tax to smart phones and tablets will make it harder to seem like I’m doing that.

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March 20, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT  Healthcare Social Media  iPad  iPhone  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones  Tablets
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uChek Brings Urinalysis Home

Most doctor’s appointments tend to involve some kind of urine sample, at least it seems like it. Even though I’m sure no one really looks forward to this, urine tests can reveal a lot of information about a person’s health, and what may be causing problems. uChek, a product from Biosense Technologies, is helping make it possible for people to do this test at home.

uChek allows a person to use their phone to diagnose an at-home urine test. Basically, a person can purchase a uChek kit, which has a uChek color mat and sample urine dipsticks. The dipstick changes color according to the concentration of different analytes in urine. You then put the dipstick on the color mat, and then compare this to the uChek app. This will help to determine if there is anything amiss. It is compatible with the five most commonly used urine dipsticks, which can be purchased at pharmacies. Although it is recommended to use the uChek kit, someone can purchase the dipsticks are a pharmacy, and then compare it to the app manually. If the app isn’t used, accuracy may be lower because it takes longer to manually check.

When used correctly, uChek has 95 percent accuracy at identifying the concentration of up to 10 analytes — glucose, protein, ketones, urobilinogen, bilirubin, specific gravity, blood, pH, leukocytes, and nitrites. Being able to see this information can help a person who suspects they have certain illnesses, such as diabetes or a UTI, keep track of their symptoms. The app will create a graph with different readings over time.

The website makes sure to state that this is not a medical device, and not meant to diagnose illnesses and diseases. It is merely for informational reasons. I think this is pretty awesome. For example, I was thinking it could helpful for someone who is at risk for pre-eclampsia. Since that is often diagnosed through a urine sample, if someone wants to monitor their urine at home, they might be able to catch it early, and get treatment faster as well.

uChek isn’t available yet for purchase, or to be downloaded, but it will be soon. If this is something you are interested in, be sure to go enter your information on the site, so they can send you updates as they happen.

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March 1, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPad  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring
Tags:    uChek  Urinalysis

The Beam Toothbrush Transforms Dental Hygiene

A few years ago, an old roommate of mine informed me that I grind my teeth almost constantly as I slept. After talking with some people, I discovered that this, combined with some dental problems I encountered in high school, could be the underlying cause of many of my health problems. Primarily, migraines. Before that point, I didn’t realize just how much dental issues can affect other parts of the body.

So when I saw the Beam Toothbrush,  I was pretty excited. There’s so many devices out there to help improve people’s health, but I’ve never seen anything that really focuses on teeth brushing, which is essential for good health.

The Beam Toothbrush is a toothbrush that monitors oral hygiene, and sinks the data to a smart phone app. The app will then track the data for all activated brushes, create graphs with the data, and inform the user of certain things, like a missed brushing time. Each brush can only be assigned to one user, for obvious reasons, but several users can be tracked on the app.

From the looks of the website, and just the idea behind it, I think this is a toothbrush that is aimed toward children. It seems like a good way for parents to see if their child is really brushing their teeth. Because ask any parent — most kids aren’t the best brushers out there. I know I wasn’t.

I like the idea behind it, and I’ll be interested to see if it takes off at all. I’m not so sure I’d spend 49.99 on a toothbrush that wasn’t an electric one, especially for a child, but it might be an well-made investment for those who have children that forget to brush. Knowing that your parent has access to your teeth brushing “records” may be good motivation for some not to forget.

It comes in either blue or pink, and runs on AA batteries. It is a manual toothbrush, so it’s not going to be as fancy as ones like the Sonicare brand (which is what I use, and love), but it seems perfect for children. It is available for 49.99, and replacement heads are 3.99. Dentists and oral surgeons can also purchase them for resell. The app is only available on iOS systems.

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February 27, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Apple  Gadgets  Health Care  Medical Devices  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones  Tablets
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Amiigo: A New Wearable Device About To Hit The Market

Wearable fitness devices are a dime-a-dozen. Whenever I go to the store, or read up on the latest mHealth news, I feel like I’m seeing another one. Just like I said about food diaries, the device really needs to have features that set it apart from others. Amiigo is one that’s just about to be released, and it definitely is something I think people are going to be interested in.

Started by a team of Salt Lake City Entrepreneurs, Amiigo is a Bluetooth fitness device that is be worn as a bracelet and shoe clip. The team was promoting it on Indiegogo and reach their initial goal very quickly. Now, the product is available for pre-order, and in hopes of reaching their $350,000 goal, the team is hosting a contest — the top twocolors voted for on their Indiegogo page will go to production if that goal is reached. They are only about $9,000 away, so if you are interested, be sure to go check out the page.

Not sure if you are interested in voting and investing? Here’s some information about this neat advice

Amiigo 5

Amiigo is sweat-proof and recognizes more than 100 exercises. The device had sensors in the bracelet that detect upper body movements, and the shoe clip detects lower body movements. It uses these sensors to determine what the users full body workout was, and sends the information to the mobile app.

Some other key features include:

  • Tracking Physiological Response: It tracks things like heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, and calories burned
  • Sharing With Others: Workouts can be shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where friends and family can post encouragement.
  • Power Saving and Comfortable: It has a battery charge of two or more days, and is adjustable so it fits comfortably on just about everyone

From what I can tell, this is going to be an awesome wearable fitness device. I like that it can automatically detect what exercise you are doing and calculate information based on that. It is also available for both Android and iOS. If I had the money, I’d definitely donate some to get this product out quicker, but if you do and this sounds like something you would like, head on over here.

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February 14, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Gadgets  Health Care  iPad  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones
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The Eatery: A Visual Food Diary

When it comes to food diary apps, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. I’ve featured several different food diaries in the past. While they all have certain interesting features, it ultimately comes down to one principle: add food throughout the day, and see how many calories you’ve eaten. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a mobile food diary. But for someone wanting to create a new one, it’s important to have a unique idea behind it.

The Eatery does just that. It’s not just a mobile app, but a health experiment as well. The difference between this and other food diaries, is that you don’t record calories, fat content, etc. You simply just take a picture. This video from the website describes it pretty well:

It is definitely an interesting concept, that’s for sure. I just wonder how effective it is, since you just are taking pictures of your food, rather than recording their health content. I know that I don’t always realize how many calories are in something until I look up the information online, so I’d hate to be taking pictures of food and putting them on the app, thinking they are healthy, when actuality, they are not. I guess that’s why they let other people rate your food, but I did see some people complain about people who rate all food as unhealthy, regardless of what it is.

I do like how it creates a graph, showing when you eat the most unhealthy foods. That could be very helpful if someone was trying to figure out what times of day are unhealthiest, and learn how to combat that.

This is a free app, and is available in the iTunes app store.

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February 6, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Apple  Health Care  Healthcare Social Media  mHealth  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones
Tags:    The Eatery

BlackBerry’s “Hail Mary” Pass for mHealth

With the release of the Microsoft Surface, which might be the ideal tablet for hospitals, doctors have plenty of options when it comes to mobile devices. While it seemed like the former doctor choice, the Blackberry, was becoming obsolete among healthcare professionals, it looks like the company is trying to make a comeback.

The company recently released the BlackBerry 10 OS, a touchscreen Blackberry Z10, and the BlackBerry Q10. Since the company has been struggling, it looks like this might be its saving grace. However, are doctors going to switch back to BlackBerry, especially if they’ve already started getting accustomed to the Android or Apple product they’ve been using?

According to the Mobi Health News article, there are some features that BlackBerry hopes will attract people. These include:

  • A physical keyboard, which most Android and all Apple products lack (unless you purchase a detachable one.)
  • An opt-in predictive text
  • BlackBerry Balance – the data storage allows the user to have work-related material put in a special section that is more secured, and it can be easily deleted if the employee leaves the company.
  • BlackBerry Protect – this is a built-in security feature, that, if the device is lost, can remotely delete all the information. This is usually a feature that has to be downloaded on most mobile apps, but just comes with the new devices.
  • Blackberry Remember – an “organizational aid” that can be used to take notes and keep track of events. There is plans for it to be able to sync with Evernote.

The CEO of BlackBerry, Thorsten Heins, has also indicated that the new OS will eventually expand to other devices, especially ones for medical professions.

These new developments for BlackBerry are being called their Hail Mary pass, and it seems like they are making a worth effort. I think if they want to compete, they will need to release some type of tablet, as well as get health app creators to make more BlackBerry compatible apps. It’s obvious that many companies are seeing the value in appealing to the healthcare field, and it will be interesting to see if BlackBerry can get their name back in the game.

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February 2, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Blackberry  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones
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Track Infants Growth With BeCuddle iPhone App

When there’s a baby around, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of time. At least that’s how I feel. Especially in those first few months, with round the clock feedings, erratic nap schedules, and doctor’s appointments. BeCuddle, a new app created just for parents, aims to  make life a little bit easier.

BeCuddle not only makes it easy to keep track of diaper changes and feedings, but milestones, growth, and even medicine. There’s quite a few apps out there that help with each of these things, but this is the first one I’ve seen that combine them all into one.

There are several categories that can be tracked — sleep, feeding, growth, milestones and medical.

screenshot

Because of all the health problems my son has had, I really like the medical section. It has the option to add doctors visits, record vaccines, and, my favorite, keep track of medicines. My son has been on at least one medication since he was just one month old, and it has sometimes been hard to remember when we gave him what. Obviously, an infants medicine intake needs to be carefully monitored, and I would have loved to have something like this.

This app really makes it easy to keep track of growth of an infant. I think it could also be helpful to show a pediatrician, such as if they are inquiring about how much a baby is eating, their urine output, or milestones. Half the time when we are at the doctor and discussing things, I have no idea what to say, and it would be so nice to be able to pull out my phone and give some hard facts.

Overall, I really liked this. Although my son is quickly leaving the infant stage (he’ll be one on March 6th!,) I will definitely keep this in mind for our next baby. It is available for the iPhone only right now, though I hope it will be available for Android as well. One specifically made for the iPad would be nice too. It’s also free, which makes it even better in my eyes.

Download for free here.

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January 30, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Apple  Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPad  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Patient Home Monitoring  Smart Phones
Tags:Apps for Parents  Baby Apps  BeCuddle    


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