This past week, Apple published more than 240 apps to the health and medical categories of its AppStore. By our count, 132 of those published to the consumer health & fitness category, and we found 112 apps in the medical category. While these numbers are high, it should come as no surprise that a significant amount of them are either not in English or not at all health related.
Still, MobiHealthNews found a handful of apps worth noting.
This week's selection includes a couple of smoking cessation apps, an app from a major medical association, an electronic billing app, a toothbrush monitoring app for kids, and more.
We predict that iOS apps intended for use by medical professionals and medical students will exceed 5,000 by next summer, as discussed in our Professional Apps Report. The number of health-related consumer apps will cross 13,000 by next summer, according to MobiHealthNews’ Consumer Health Apps Report.
Check out our round-up of this week's new health related apps below.
Kickit - $0.99
Kickit is a new smoking cessation app with a bold, cleanly-designed interface that uses financial incentives to keep users from smoking. Users input their quit date, the cost per pack of cigarettes, cigarettes smoked per day, and the number of cigarettes per pack. Kickit then figures out how long it will take to afford a financial incentive, such as a new laptop, using money saved from not smoking. While SMS has been proven to help with smoking cessation, it's interesting to see whether financial incentives will help as well.
HIF SmartClaim - Free
The Health Insurance Fund (HIF) of Australia's SmartClaim app allows physicians to file insurance claims from their iPhones. Users enter their HIF member details, then use the iPhone's camera to take photos of invoices that are submitted with the digital claim. MobiHealthNews covered the potential rise of automation of paper-based processes in healthcare this summer, with one mobile imaging CEO, Mitek's James DeBello, saying that "healthcare is a huge priority."
Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence (HPOE) - Free
Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence (HPOE) from the American Hospital Association provides resources for hospitals hoping to increase performance, including action guides for best practices, reports, and toolkits that can be downloaded for offline viewing and emailed to others.
The AHA also has an app called ASHRM (Annual Conference and Exhibition Risk and Resilience), which is an app for attendees to an AHA conference.
Like many healthcare industry incumbent groups, the AHA has been relatively slow to launch initiatives. The American Medical Assoication, for example, only launched its first app -- an ICD-9 billing code app -- this past year. Likewise, the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) has been similarly slow to adopt mobile, but has plans in the further to explore it further.
Pedometer Ultimate GPS + - Free
Pedometer Ultimate GPS records your runs, tracking the users' time, location, distance, elevation, speed, pace, and heart rate. The data can then be uploaded to services like Dailymile, RunKeeper and TrainingPeaks. The collected data can also be aggregated onto a map that displays pace and route, and also shown in graph form. The app enters a competitive space that includes the popular Nike+ app, as well as RunKeeper, Fitbit, Jawbone UP, and the recently released Garmin Fit. While there are hundreds of fitness focused apps available, in the past year there has also been a rise in the number of dedicated fitness devices (many of which have their own companion apps). See a detailed list of fitness devices in the mHealth space here.
IASIS Healthcare - Free
This app lets you access information on the IASIS Healthcare Hospital system. IASIS Healthcare owns and operates acute care and behavioral health hospitals in seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, Texas and Utah. The app includes ER wait times, driving directions, and a physician directory. It's an interesting example of when a hospital decides to go the route of developing their own app or working with an app developer to white label one, instead of or in addition to integrating with apps with larger user bases, like iTriage or ZocDoc.
Tooth brushing timer for KIDZ - $0.99
This dental app encourages children to brush their teeth correctly by using a guided system featuring cartoon characters. The app utilizes a three minute timer for brushing teeth that instructs children on the proper technique using illustrated diagrams. Parents can program the app's settings, including changing the cartoon guide, but children are allowed to start the timer.
Reminds us of a research project from Rice University that sought to embed accelerometers in kids' toothbrushes. GreenGoose, a newer startup, had a similar idea.
Smok'tivation - $0.99
Smok'tivation is the second smoking cessation app released this week that uses incentives, a notable uptick in a somewhat niche health app category. It offers very similar functionality to Kickit, including savings and the time needed to purchase the incentive, with the added features of a progress bar that colorizes a photo of the object to visualize your progress. There is also a feature that purports to tell you how long your lifespan has increased due to not smoking, which could prove to be incentive enough.
In our MobiHealthNews 2011 Consumer Apps Report, we wrote that apps that help users track the number of days they have gone without smoking (or the number of cigarettes they smoke in an effort to get to zero) are still the most populous type of smoking cessation app available for iPhone users.
Want to learn about more recently released apps? Check out last week's apps roundup.
