Sick? Stay home from work, play with your iPhone
October 27th, 2009
It may not be the much-hyped H1N1 virus, but the “regular” flu is quite the killer around workplaces this season. It seems to be spreading like wildfire, specifically at my office and definitely on the public transportation I and many others depend on. In fact, I would bet that as you read this, either you or someone you know is sick or on the verge of it. So, of course, here comes a slew of iPhone apps to save the day. Or at least attempt to help you get through it.
An entire category in the App Store is dedicated to medical needs, but it’s somewhat surprising how few medical applications are provided for the everyday user. Most are geared toward the professional medical community-think: medical dictionaries; really big, expensive medical dictionaries-and many of the ones that are meant for the everyday user tend to not deliver as promised. So in honor of my ill coworkers and yours, as well, here are the few “sick” apps that claim to help you, in some way, through these rough times.
I.T. (Illness Tracker)
First things first: Feeling sick? You should probably know what you’re feeling and how long you’ve been feeling it before going into the doctor. With this app, you can track your symptoms with a calendar that gets down to the very minute that you experienced said symptom.
Features:
- The app goes past the basic “headache” and “coughing” symptoms-though those are included as options-with an incredible list of symptoms to choose from. Each symptom has its own icon that shows on the calendar, giving a visual of just how sick you really are and have been.
- Along with symptoms, you can also record your temperature, level of pain, any medications taken, and if you visited a doctor.
- You can create different “profiles” by adding people into the application to track their symptoms separately. This is an excellent addition for iPhone users with children or roommates, allowing you to see just how much you’ve infected each other over the past week.
- Users have the option of e-mailing their tracking data. Perhaps you have a really nice doctor who would just let you e-mail your symptoms instead of forking over that office visit fee? Regardless, it’s a neat feature.
Conclusion:
It’s useful, it’s dumbfoundingly easy to use, and it’s well worth the $0.99. The graphics and colors in the app also make it pleasant to use, and I never encountered a software issue in the week I used it, meaning no crashes, glitches, or freezes.
Our Grade: A+
Price: $0.99
Availability: App Store
WebMD
So once you figure out what symptoms you’ve been having for however long, the next step would be to get diagnosed, right? In our opinion, going to the doctor would probably be the best way to get this accomplished, but the iPhone solves everything, right?
The popular diagnosis website WebMD.com has a companion iPhone app, allowing you to diagnose yourself by touching the body where you hurt and answering a few simple questions. In addition to the infamous symptom checker, you can also research drugs and treatments, as well as first aid information.
Features:
- After identifying yourself by age, sex, and the zip code where you live, the app directs you to touch or zoom in on the part of the body that’s ailing you. It’s a nice touch to liven up an app that could otherwise be fairly boring and instead make it interactive.
- Once you select the correct body part, the app provides a list of symptoms you may be feeling-everything from “bleeding” to “fear of air,” really, we can’t make this up-and also asks some follow-up questions.
Conclusion:
This app does pretty much all that is promised. Check your symptoms with ease, look into treatments, and get some valuable first aid information. But I can’t help but feel that this app is a little useless-as is the original website-as it ended up determining that my headache is being caused by rabies. Take our advice: Have some fun with this free app, if you must, but do make sure to see a real doctor if you’re not feeling well. The iPhone can’t be right about everything all the time, right? Right.
Our grade: B+
Price: FREE
Availability: App Store
Symptom Checker
Remember what we said earlier about the WebMD app and how it could be boring? Well, this is that boring version. Symptom Checker does about one-fourth of what WebMD does, when it comes to symptom checking, but also searches your area for available doctors and specialists.
Features:
- Offers up a list of all of the doctors in your area, either by family physician, general practitioner, or pediatrician. It’s an incredibly thorough list, with the doctor’s contact information included, but there’s no option to search by zip code or location. When you live in a big city like I do, this is pretty much a necessity and makes the feature more of a burden than a help.
- After searching a symptom on the home screen, you can choose to view either health results or news results. Though the news results are a bit interesting-did you know 10 percent of children use cough medicine every week?-the “health results” aren’t so much helpful as they are…scary. When I searched “cough” as a symptom, my results were entries for whooping cough, cystic fibrosis, and pneumonia.
Conclusion:
Unlike WebMD, this app doesn’t even come close to serving its purpose of helping patients look up their symptoms, regardless of how much it misleads people or not. The software is very bare, in terms of narrowing down results for users. A few more additions (and removing those pesky little ads for eye doctors in Cincinatti) could beef this up, but don’t waste the space on your hard drive for this one until one.
Our grade: D+
Price: FREE
Availability: App Store
Find a Doctor
So now it’s time to finally go to the doctor. This app claims to find doctors in your area, based on specialty.
Features:
- None, because we couldn’t get it to work.
- After being greeted by a colorful graphic that looks like it was drawn by an elementary school student
you’re supposed to be able to modify your settings by location, insurance plan, doctor, and hospital. Though I was able to choose my location, no doctors, hospitals, or insurance plans were listed. I live in a major metropolitan city, so this should not be an issue in the slightest.
Conclusion:
Don’t buy this app. It does not work, plain and simple. Also, take notice of the major spelling error. I know doctors didn’t go to med school to be good spellers, but still…
Our grade: F
Price: $1.99
Availability: App Store
Find a Doctor (iDoctor)
Let’s try this again. This app also claims to list doctors in your area directions.
Features:
- Detects your location automatically when you launch the app.
- Provides an interactive map with each doctor listing, including driving directions.
- Tap the doctor listing to directly place a call to that doctor, and also to visit his or her website.
Conclusion:
Much better, but still not quite what we were looking for. The call, map, and website features work marvelously, but the list of doctors is disappointingly short. I have a feeling the nearby medical spa and skin clinic won’t be able to help me when I’m sick as a dog. Nice try, though.
Our grade: C+
Price: $0.99
Availability: App Store
DoctorFinder
Because I think a doctor-finding application could be one of the most useful of the “sick” applications, I tracked down just one more in hopes of it being a winner. DoctorFinder will list physicians in your area (including dentists, dermatologists, etc.) and include their proximity, contact information, and a map.
Features:
- Automatically detects your location, lists doctor of your chosen specialty in your area.
- When you click on the doctor, brings you to the doctor’s contact information, along with an interactive Google map and the option to call the doctor right from this screen.
Conclusion:
We have a winner! I know there are more than a dozen physicians in my area, and this app pretty much showed all of them. The call feature works like a charm, as does the Google map. There are also plenty of options for different specialties, so finding a doctor for any ailment shouldn’t be an issue. Though it may not be the most attractive “finder” app, it gets the job done, and for a reasonable price (free!).
Our grade: A
Price: FREE
Availability: App Store
Find a Pharmacy (iPharmacy)
Developed by the same folks who brought us the disappointing Find a Doctor (iDoctor), this application shows you where you can go to fill your prescription, now that you’ve actually tracked down a doctor and been officially diagnosed. Find a Pharmacy (iPharmacy) lists the pharmacies in your given area, as well as connects you to them via direct calling or website links and maps.
Features:
- Detects your current location automatically, should you allow it (a dialogue box pops up when you launch the app, asking if it’s okay to detect your current location).
- Allows for direct calling to pharmacies by tapping the listing.
- Interactive map with driving directions included, as well as links to pharmacy websites.
- Bookmarking option for keeping track of your pharmacy of choice.
Conclusion:
Despite my skepticism based on the developer’s doctor-finding application, this app is absolutely in working order and useful, perhaps the most useful of the bunch. If you’re visiting a doctor not close to home, this is the perfect app for helping you to find a nearby pharmacy, as the app detects your current location by phone. The calling and map features work great, and the speed at which it loads is impressive.
Our grade: A+
Price: $0.99
Availability: App Store
Related posts:
Posted in I Cafe