Smartphone Apps Can Help You Manage Your Health
If you want to lose weight, monitor blood glucose levels or find out more about a mole on your arm, just grab your phone. There's an app for that.
Mother of a newborn, Meghan Cooper juggles a lot, and her phone helps her keep track of her family's health.
"I use a handful of apps on my phone to help me lose baby weight, to keep track of my health along with my baby's," she said.
She keeps an especially close eye on her infant.
"She has a condition called SVT that I need to be able to check her heart rate on a regular basis so I'm able to do that with the camera and the flash."
Believe it or not, her smartphone is a stand-in for a stethoscope, and an app can track how many calories she gives her baby.
And now many apps are talking with your tools, so to speak. Take a Wi-Fi-enabled scale for your home as an example.
"It actually sends your weight, your BMI, body mass index, as well as your body fat percentage," said Brian Dolan with MobiHealthNews.
A high-tech glucose meter plugs into your iPhone. Results are sent to the phone and charts are created.
"It's very easy to send those e-charts to your care provider, your family friends, and others that are helping you manage your condition," Dolan said.
Worried about skin cancer? You can send pictures through your phone of moles and freckles.
"These apps aren't going to specifically diagnose you with anything," Dolan said. "They will let you know if maybe that mole has an irregular shape, irregular color, and give you a sense to how risky that mole might be."
The FDA is working now on guidelines to regulate certain apps, just as it does with any medical devices. Meghan says her apps ease her load.
"I don't have to carry around extra things like a stethoscope, or a calorie counter or a pedometer," she said.
