Prescribing to mobile health apps

Healthcare in the mobile age is fast turning into a hot topic with the availability of numerous health and fitness apps, across various platforms like iOS, Android and BlackBerry.  There is an app to track down what you eat and count your calories, keep a tab on your exercise regime, check your BMI and heart rate, and much more. Turning your mobile app into your workout trainer or your food/exercise tracker is being widely accepted. But the question is how reliable are these apps when it comes to keeping a track of health conditions that need more immediate attention, like monitoring diabetes or high pressure.

Mashable recently revealed data from Float Mobile, after learning that 40 percent of doctors believe that using healthcare apps will reduce the number of visits to doctors. 88 percent doctors completely support patients keeping a watch on their health at home using mobile apps when it comes to watch out one's weight, blood sugar and for other vital signs. Even consumers would like to put their mobile apps to better use, according to the study. The healthcare apps category is becoming the third-fastest growing one, among iOS and Android users. Doctors have been widely using mobile devices for easy access to vast information, saving time on admin work and making faster decisions.

The mobile app market has seen a huge boost with the Android Play store giving neck-to-neck competition to the Apple App Store, followed by other players, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Samsung, to name a few. To know how well the health mobile apps perceived in india, we spoke to renowned nutritionists about what they think about mobile health apps.

Do you think health apps are handy?

Venu Hirani, Nutritionist & Fitness Consultant and also the founder of Bodyworks says,”Till a few months back I did have my doubts about the acceptance of health related content / apps on mobile in India but the response that we have received to the fitness videos that I have had the opportunity to present with a leading service provider has overwhelmed me. We have over 15000 subscribers and counting. And very soon we will have more health related products launched. People today are more aware and are hungry for more authentic information which is related to us Indians.”

Luke Coutinho,  Nutritionist and Fitness Consultant  and also the author of Eat Smart, Move More, Sleep Right says, “There are good apps and complicated ones,,i truly believe that the simpler you keep it the more user friendly it is,,health mobile apps if made well with much thought can actually help an individual to get healthy,,,i have a lot of clients who use such apps and swear by it,,they can motivate, inspire, help plan goals and give reports on performance.”