Every day dozens of new health-related apps make their way into the AppStore. This week we noticed about a half dozen health apps that we felt were worth highlighting, including the quiet launch of a video consultation app that has made a lot of noise pre-launch (more on that below).
MobiHealthNews continues to track the growing number of apps available to both medical professionals and consumers. As we predicted in our recent Professional Apps Report, by next summer we expect the number of iOS apps intended for use by medical professionals and medical students to top 9,000 apps. The number of health-related iOS apps intended for use by consumers will grow to more than 13,000 by next summer, according to MobiHealthNews' Consumer Health Apps Report.
Read on to learn about the newest health apps that joined the AppStore during the past week -- the ones worth knowing about, anyway.
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Ringadoc - Free
Telethrive's Ringadoc is an iOS app video consultation service that connects users to physicians in an interface similar to Apple's FaceTime. Consultations cost a flat rate of $39. Users record an audio summary of their medical history and a video describing their medical concern, which the doctor consults before speaking with the patient. In September, Telethrive was chosen to demo Ringadoc at the DC to VC: HIT Startup Showcase by VC firm Morgenthaler Ventures, as part of the firm's promising health IT startup competition.
Separately, (potential) competitor Teladoc announced plans this summer to bring FaceTime consulting to their platform, but have yet to launch any such feature.
Garmin Fit - Free
Garmin's fitness app Garmin Fit is the longstanding company's answer to the various fitness sensor apps being released by its start-up competitors. The app works in conjuction with a $49.99 ANT+ wireless adapter to track running, cycling, and heart rate metrics collected via Garmin wearable sensors.
According to Garmin’s website, compatible accessories include its Foot Pod, both the regular and premium heart rate monitor, and speed/cadence bike sensor. Garmin currently only offers the ANT+ adapter for the iPhone, but the Android version of the app will allow users to track time, distance, speed, and calories burned. The workout data collected by Garmin’s app can then be uploaded to the free Garmin Connect online fitness community. The data is aggregated as charts, graphs, reports, and map representations of the route traveled during a workout, gathered via GPS.
Eat, Chew, Rest - Free
Eat, Chew, Rest is a simple free app that could still prove to be very helpful to users wishing to be mindful of their eating habits. Going off the recommendation of health experts that eating food slowly increases gylcemic response and help in losing weight, the app helps users to eat their meal slowly by dividing the meal into timed sections: Eat (where the food is appreciated), Chew (where the food is savored, and well, chewed) and Rest (where it is reflected on before the next bite). The app's developer cites Tim Ferriss as an inspiration for the app. It's a little silly, but it could work.
The Eatery - Free
Massive Health's hotly anticipated first app, The Eatery, launched this week. The free iOS app promises a five second speed using their “Fit or Fat” food rating system, which sees community members providing feedback on the photos of food other app users submit. No calories or nutritional information is provided within the app -- all the healthiness rating comes from crowd-sourced opinions, which the app's developers believe is a more effective way of tracking ones eating. The app automatically tag photos of food with locations of restaurants, bars, or coffee shops for those users who location-enable it, but MobiHealthNews found that on a few occasions the app chose wrong. In a comment on one of our food photos, Massive Health CEO Sutha Kamal wrote that the app was typically right when it guessed location.
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology - Free
The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology's iOS app features articles from the journal. Its biggest feature (and one of the advantages of the digital era) is access to publish-ahead-of-print (JASN Express) abstracts, including images and tables. Users can bookmark their favorite articles and share links via email, Facebook, and Twitter.
ICSD-2/ICD-9 Coding Crosswalk - 2.99
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine's ICSD-2/ICD-9 Coding Crosswalk finds the ICD-9-CM reference billing codes for sleep disorder diagnoses found within in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders – Second Edition (ICSD-2). Each diagnosis includes ICD-9-CM section, category and subcategory information and descriptors, and coding instructions. The American Medical Association (AMA) launched their first smartphone app, CPT E/M QuickRef, this March, a CPT reference app. The ICD-10 is expected to be adopted in October 2013 by the United States.
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