Apple | Smart Phone Health Care

Managing Pain With New WebMD App

Yesterday, I received an email from WebMD with news of a new app. It caught me eye, so I decided to look a little more into it.

The app is called Pain Coach, with the subtitle “A Better Day Starts Here.” For anyone that deals with any type of chronic pain, that is definitely a tempting proposition.

When a person goes to the doctor for any type of persistent pain, the doctor is ineveitably going to ask “So, where does it hurt?” Having been in this position myself, I usually draw a blank and give a very generic area — which could indicate a whole variety of problems. This app would be great for a doctor to “prescribe” to a patient who might need a little help pinpointing exactly where the pain is, what the triggers are, and how to describe that pain to the doctor. It would definitely make doctor’s appointments go smoother, in my opinion.

So let’s take a look at what this app actually has to offer.

First off, it is only available for the iPhone — sorry Android users (myself included!) The email I got listed the following features:

Doctor-approved information customized to your condition
A personal journal that tracks your pain level on scale of 1 to 10, as well as your symptoms, treatments, and triggers. Email a PDF report of your pain history in time for your next doctor visit.
Goals to help you manage your pain.
Hundreds of daily tips to help you achieve your goals

Here a few screen shots, provided by iTunes:

This shows a basic summary of a particular day. There is definitely a lot of detail, probably more than most doctors really would care about…but it seems pretty easy to track.

This looks like the pain identification center…once again, it has lots of details. I think pinpointing specific times and dates can really show specific triggers for pain.

And finally, here’s a picture of a graph that can be created to map pain over a certain period of time. I imagine this might be something a physician would be interested in.

As with most mobile health apps, this is a great idea . . . if people actually remember to use it beyond the first few days after the initial download. I’ve been thinking a lot about a post over at Happy EMR Doctor about patient engagement. What is it going to take for patients to actually use medical apps on a long term basis? Either way, I think this is a neat app, and I hope it becomes available for Android phones soon!

This app is absolutely free, and can be downloaded for free here from the iTunes app store.

WebMD.com Goes Mobile With Well-Developed App

One of my favorite health-related websites is WebMD.com, so of course I had to download the app when it became available. While I was disappointed that the WebMD Baby app isn’t available for Android, there is a WebMD app for both Apple and Android platforms. Here is the description provided on

WebMD for Android helps you with your decision-making and health improvement efforts by providing mobile access 24/7 to mobile-optimized health information and decision-support tools including WebMD’s Symptom Check, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings. WebMD the App also gives you access to first aid information without having to be connected wirelessly — critical if you don’t have Internet access in the time of need.

For the most part, I really like the app. It is easy to navigate and has a lot of different features. You can sign up for an account with WebMD if you don’t have one, or link an already existing account. Either way, it doesn’t take too long to get into the app.

There are five main sections to the app, which were mentioned in the description above. They can be accessed from the front page of the app, which looks like this:

When selecting the “Symptom Checker” for the first time, I was asked my age, zip code, and gender. I’m not sure if it would ask this if any of the other sections were accessed first. I’m guessing this information is asked just so results can be more customized to your demographic.

I really like the symptoms checker. A digital figure of a body (male or female, depending on what you selected originally) where you select the part of your body that is currently of concern. From there, a list of potential diagnoses come up. Unfortunately, this portion for the app rarely works for me. It says it cannot connect without an Internet connection, even though my phone is connected through the Internet and my data plan. Because of this, I can’t really vouch for the usefulness of this, but if I ever can get it to work, I think it would be kind of neat. As such, I typically select the “list” view, where a list of body parts comes up. It’s nice to be able to scroll through and see different illness and read more about them, including the symptoms. However, as I mentioned in my post about the Internet and hypochondriacs, I have spent far too much time browsing the symptoms. That’s not the apps fault though!

Under the conditions tab, there are a few options. First, My Conditions. Here, you can login to a WebMD account and save conditions you are currently diagnosed with, drugs being used, and first aid information. Then there is the top searches tab, which shows just that — the top searched conditions. And finally, there is an A-Z list of all conditions that have available information on WebMD.

Drugs and treatments has the options as My Conditions does, but there is an additional section called Pill ID. I think this is a pretty neat little feature. You can figure out what type of pill something is (like, maybe you have to take several different pills and you’ve put them into a pill box, only to forget later on which pill is which) by selecting the shape, color, or imprint. There are a lot of different shapes and colors to choose from, and the option is available to type in any letters or numbers on a pill.

The First Aid section gives detailed information on how to treat various things, from asthma attacks to heart attacks to jellyfish stings. These are, of course, only supposed to be used as guidelines, and if there is a true emergency, it says to call 911 immediately. This is a great reference guide though, even if its an emergency, because I believe that its important to try and do something while waiting for medical assistance to arrive. I like this feature a lot.

Finally there is the local health listings. Here, you can search for a physician, pharmacy, or hospital near you. You must have a name or speciality in mind when selecting either of these, but from there, it will bring up a list of names, hospitals, or pharmacies nearby with all the necessary information (phone number, address, map, etc.). Having traveled a good amount in the past few months, and in some cases needed to find a pharmacy in an unfamiliar area, this would have been really helpful to have!

Overall, its a great app. I’d even go as far as saying its a necessary one for everyone to have on their phone. I think it is unfortunate that, beyond the first aid section, an Internet connection is required, but beyond that, I don’t have any complaints!

Download here for Apple devices

Download for Android

Another Migraine App Enters the Market

There’s a whole host of apps for migraines becoming available. After reviewing Migraine Meter, I was asked to review another migraine app. Over at EMRandHIPAA.com, John wrote about a start-up company called Ubiqi Health, which has both an online platform and app to help monitor and help with migraines. Since I wasn’t a big fan of Migraine Meter, I was excited to see how this one works. The website says:

We know that understanding and managing your migraines takes a lot of effort and can often feel like an uphill struggle. Ubiqi Health makes it easier for you with simple tools that can be used anywhere to track your progress and, ultimately, gain more control over your health.

For the purpose of this post, I will be focusing on the mobile app.

First off, the app is free. Awesome, awesome. It’s available for both Android and Apple users, which is great news for everyone.

For both Android and Apple devices, it currently has almost 5 stars. Just looking at the information listed on there, and the screen shots, makes me feel like it is better than Migraine Meter already. The colors are nice, mainly just white and blue, and it looks like it was designed well. After looking around the website and the description, I decided to try it out myself.

Basically the app has four main things it asks you to track: When the migraine happened, how sever it was, what treatments were used, and any possible/noticeable triggers. The app was created by talking to people who suffer from migraines and finding out their needs. Smart move. Anyways…

First off, when the app is first opened, a registration screen pops up. It asks for basic information, such as email address, age, location, and gender. Pretty simple, and I was able to register pretty quickly.

After registering, you are brought to the home page. Here is a screen shot of it:

As you can see, there are six different sections. Let’s start with “Track Episode” (I think the picture that goes along with that tab is fairly accurate in depicting a migraine, yes?). You simply enter the date/time it started, ended, and intensity. You can also add treatments and triggers, if any of that information is available. For treatments, it has three preset ones (abortive medicine, darkness, and inactivity), but you can enter anything else you did, and for triggers, it has quite a few common ones as well. Entering date and time is really easy, as is entering the other information. For some reason, it bothers me that the triggers/treatments aren’t capitialized, it just seems kind of unpolished. But that’s just personal preference.

Next, there are the track triggers and track treatments. Basically, you enter in the same information you put in the track episode section, and because of that, it feels a bit repetitive. The only part is new, is entering the time of the treatments/triggers. I feel like if these are going to be separate sections, it shouldn’t be included in the track episode section. I think I would only put that information in one of the places, rather than both.

I have the same feelings about the note section as I did about the separate treatment and trigger sections. You can add notes in track episode.

Next, there is view feed. Basically, it just puts all of your activity here. Not much else to say about that.

Finally, when all is said and done, you can select get report, and have a report sent to your email about migraines. This report can be useful for doctor’s appointments, or just for finding patterns in general. I think this could be very useful.

Overall, I like the app. It’s super simple and easy to use. It doesn’t have any “extra” stuff like Migraine Meter (I just didn’t really care for the migraine news section that was the front page of the app), and it’s easy to navigate. It’s also really fast, and information can be input quickly. My only complaints are, as I’ve already mentioned, that the information was a bit repetitive. I get that the “track episode” section is supposed to have all the information in it about each episode, but I just don’t like that you have to enter triggers and treatments in different sections. I think it would be nice to just have to enter the date, time, and intensity here, and somehow have it get linked to the other sections.

This app can be downloaded for Android products , and Apple products here.

Go From Couch Potato to Runner with Couch-to-5K App

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no runner. When I met my husband, he told me that he wanted to run a 5K that summer (which, I have to admit right now, never happened). Trying to impress him, I told him I wanted to as well. He then suggested a podcast he had heard of called Couch to 5k — because he probably guessed I wasn’t a runner. I found the podcast online somewhere and uploaded it to my mp3 player. I probably used it for about 2 weeks, and then life got in the way for awhile. While I continued to run, I kind of gave up on the podcast. After I got pregnant, I pretty much never ran because I was sick just about the whole 9 months, and since giving birth, haven’t really gotten back into it.

So when my sister suggested that we run together, I mentioned the couch-to-5k series. At first, I started searching for the podcast online, but then I decided to see if there was an app created for it. And lo and behold, there is, for both the iPhone and Android phones. You’ll have to fork out 1.99 (or .99 for the iPhone), but I think it’s worth it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Couch-to-5k (otherwise called, C25k) program, here’s a little description from the website, written by the creator, Josh Clark:

C25k, is a fantastic program that’s been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9weeks. With the help of the Couch to 5k program, in less than seven months, I went from a 47 year old, 104kg, 30 cigarettes a day sort of guy to an 82k, 0 cigarettes, running 45 to 40 kilometers a week sort of guy. Ten months after finishg C25k I completed my first marathon. Since then I have run another 5 marathons, as well as 8 ultra marathons including a 100km race. . . Its secret is that it’s a gentle introduction to getting the body moving, starting off alternating between walking and running small distances, and slowly building up until after 8 weeks, you’re ready to run 5 kilometers or 30 minutes non stop.

Although I have never completed the program, I definitely did notice my endurance building during the time I did it. I’m excited to use this new app though and see if it can help motivate me even more. Even though I haven’t had time to use it yet, I figured I’d do a little overview of it.

First off, I love the color schemes. I don’t know why, but the colors of an app really matter to me. The color scheme depends on which “trainer” you select. Here are the three options:

I decided to select Constance for the time being…though if I need a little more tough love, I may select another one. Each of the workouts is led by whichever trainer is selected, and the color scheme changes accordingly as well. Below is the one for Constance. It’s light and easy to look at. The other ones are a bit more intense, but they are still nice.

The above picture is also the front screen of the app. It shows up with whatever date you are on, and you can skip ahead (or go backwards) if needed. Your “trainer” gives a bit of advice or encouragement at the bottom of the screen. The top of the screen features a status bar, to show how far into the program you are.

Once you click on “Go To Workout”, you will be brought to this screen:

At this point, you can choose to listen to music that is already loaded on your phone, or enable GPS. I love the GPS feature, because I always like to see where I ran, and how long I ran for. One thing I wish was included is the background music that was on the original podcast. It just seems like you are told every so often when to change up the pace. It is nice that you can use your own music, but I really enjoyed the pace of the music on the podcast.

Once you press start, this screen pops up with the time left, which stage you are at, distance, and average pace. It’s easy to read, and you can pause the workout if you want to.

There is another tab called “Log” where you can select a smiley (or sad) face depending on how the workout made you feel, plus write down some thoughts from the workout. You then have the option to post to Facebook or Twitter, if that’s your style.

Next, there is a tab with 5k events near you. It lists all the ones that are coming up and some even give you a discount for registering on select races.

Finally, the settings tab lets you adjust certain futures such as the trainer, voice volume and music options.

Overall, I like this app a lot, from the limited exposure to it I’ve had. Once I’ve used it for a few weeks, I’ll be back with my experience, but for now, I’m excited to use it.

Download here for the iPhone (.99)
for Android (1.99)

Attention Apple iJunkies: Apple iPad 3 Only Weeks Away?

I don’t think there is a company in the world that gets more hype for its releases than Apple. While I personally am not an iJunky, as I like to call them,I do have respect for their products. Every product has good and bad, but they put out a quality product.

According to Mobile Marketing Watch, the wait may be pretty short for those who are anxious for the release of the much-anticipated iPad 3. They cite a Japanese Mac news website, Macotakara, who says that they are already in production and will ship sometime in March.

The 3rd generation iPad is expected to use LCD technology from Sharp Electronics. It will be interesting to see if some of the faults people saw in the iPad 2 will be addressed. I know one of the biggest issues was the lack of a new processor between the first and second generation.

I am also intrigued to see what faults iJunkies will find with the new system as they inevitably do.

What types of things would you like to see in the new model? Where do you think they will fall short?

Controlling Your Smartphone With Your Mind Using Siri and the iPhone 4S

Voice controlled smartphones are really nothing new seeing as how my first cellphone almost ten years ago could make calls with voice commands. Siri, the voice activated personal assistant that debuted with the new iPhone 4S, takes that technology to the next level by doing just about anything your phone can do using only voice commands.

Leave it to the real techies out there to take it to the next level. Project Black Mirror has taken that technology and attached it to EEG pads so that the device can be controlled using only brainwaves. It is almost unbelievable until you watch the video below.

Supposedly they are up to 25 different commands that can be carried out through using only brainwaves. A more detailed description of the process can be found below the video. As of right now they still have to use a computer to handle all of the computing, but like most things in technology it is only a matter of time.

In the long run they hope to be able to use this technology to help people with disabilities perform tasks that never would have been possible in the past.

When you consider that they have only been working on this for about a month it is even more impressive. You can follow further developments on their blog.

1. ECG pads provide raw skin conductivity / electrical activity as analogue data (0-5v).
2. This is plugged into the Arduino board via 4 analogue inputs (no activity = 0v, high activity = 5v).
3. The Arduino has a program burnt to it’s EPROM chip that filters the signals.
4. Josh trained the program by thinking of the main Siri commands (“Call”, “Set”, “Diary” etc.) one at a time and the program where we captured the signature brain patterns they produce.
5. The program can detect the signature patterns that indicate a certain word is being thought of. The program will then wait for a natural ‘release’ in brain waves and assume the chain of commands is now complete and action is required.
6. The series of commands are fed to a SpeakJet speech synthesiser chip
7. The audio output of which simply plugs into the iPhone’s microphone jack.

Nike+ Continues to Inspire Runners and Encourage Exercise

Nike+ started out as a relative unknown despite their huge parent company. It was not that long ago that people really didn’t know about it and if you asked someone if they knew what it was they had no idea what you are talking about.

That has all changed.

You can now see Nike+ posts all over Facebook, and their devices all over the streets of the world. According to their own website their members have logged over 376 million miles. That equates to over 15,000 times around the world and nearly 15 million pounds being burned off.

What started as simply a way to track your training has developed into a worldwide community of runners that support each other without ever even knowing the other people’s names. Like so many other social media groups, it is the power of community that makes Nike+ so powerful.

In case you are new to Nike+, there are a few different ways that you can engage in the community.

The first way is through a small attachment to the iPod Nano and a small sensor that you put in or on your shoe. The combination of the two tracks your runs and even gives you audio encouragement letting you know how your training is going. The biggest downside here is that it was, and still is, exclusive to the iPod Nano and not any other MP3 player, even those made by Apple. I have often wondered why they never expanded to the other iPod devices.

There are now numerous other ways you can be a part of the community. All of these other ways still require the small sensor to be placed in or on your shoe.

The simplest is a sportband that is comparable to a watch. This is great if you don’t listen to music but still want your runs to be tracked.

The other option is to sync the Nike+ sensor to either your iPod Touch or iPhone. Both of these devices have built-in support for the Nike+ sensor so all you have to do is sync it up and you are ready to go.

As part of the community you can see the types of runs that other people in your area are doing, and post your own runs to sites like Facebook. This encouragement and sense of community helps to inspire you to run more often and farther. You can even look at the runs of people worldwide.

What I think is one of the coolest features of the community are the challenges. There are numerous challenges created by Nike+ such as challenges between cities to see who can run the most, running 365 miles during one year, and even monthly challenges to see who can run the most in each month.You can also create your own challenges so that you can talk a little trash amongst your friends, which for a competitor like me is great motivation.

Like many people, I really don’t enjoy running despite the fact that I feel so much better when I do. It is communities and devices like Nike+ that make it at least a little more interesting and enjoyable.

Most Popular Mobile Device at HIMSS11

I think it was quite evident that there was one mobile device that was by far the most popular mobile device at the healthcare IT conference, HIMSS 2011. The funny thing is that despite being the most popular device, the vendor of this device was no where to be found among the 1000+ HIMSS exhibitors. Yes, that’s right. There were 1000 exhibitors at HIMSS and the most popular mobile health device vendor was no where to be found.

Of course, if you haven’t guessed already, the most popular mobile device at HIMSS 11 was definitely the iPad.

It seemed like about every other booth had an iPad giveaway. Every EMR vendor at HIMSS had some sort of iPad strategy and many made announcements at HIMSS about their new iPad EMR. Sadly, I didn’t walk away with an iPad myself, unless some nice vendor contacts me in the next couple days saying that I won their drawing. Then, I’d jump for joy.

I find it pretty amazing that the iPad was marketed so well at HIMSS at a cost of $0. Yes, I saw the Fujitsu iPad like offering (although really a tablet with the iPad form factor and related similarities). I also saw the yet to be released Blackberry playbook. Yet, there was no booth for Apple. There were no Apple sales or marketing people at HIMSS. There was no big Apple party at HIMSS. Yet, there’s no doubt that the iPad came off a big winner at HIMSS.

Blackberry Playbook for Hospitals and Mobile Medical Apps

iMedicalApps has an interesting article they posted recently talking about the possibility that the Blackberry Playbook could be the small form tablet of choice in hospitals and healthcare as opposed to the iPad.

Here’s their description of what one enterprise healthcare application company is doing with the Blackberry Playbook:

QNX, a large software company, recently showed off a medical reference design that allows the Blackberry Playbook to connect to medical peripheral devices via Bluetooth. The medical reference design is built on the QNX Neutrino RTOS, a platform that has a history of being FDA approved in regards to medical usage.

QNX states their software allows the Blackberry Playbook to connect to certain Continua Certified medical devices, such as blood pressure monitors, weight scales, and pulse ox devices.

It is very interesting that this company has chosen to go with the Blackberry Playbook and not the iPad. The blog mentions Apple’s approach to enterprise software being less than stellar, but I’ve also read that many think that the iPad might just break that mold. Plus, who’s to say that the Blackberry Playbook is going to be that much better. The market for the BB Playbook in enterprises is much smaller than say the Blackberry phone was in the enterprise. So, I’ll be surprised if Blackberry tries to make the Playbook any less consumer oriented than the iPad is today.

What is interesting is that I’ve heard very good things about the Blackberry Playbook and it being far better than all the Android tablets (although they suggested that will likely change over time because of Android’s openness) and even competes well with the iPad. I’ll be interested to try out a Blackberry Playbook myself.

If I can get my hands on one, I’ll provide a full review.

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Attention Apple iJunkies: Apple iPad 3 Only Weeks Away?

Controlling Your Smartphone With Your Mind Using Siri and the iPhone 4S

Nike+ Continues to Inspire Runners and Encourage Exercise

Most Popular Mobile Device at HIMSS11

Blackberry Playbook for Hospitals and Mobile Medical Apps

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