Got a Headache? Let Your Phone Play Doctor
Want to locate the nearest restaurant? Check your phone. Want to know the temperature? Check your phone. Book a flight ticket? Do it on your phone. Calculating your pulse? Do it on your phone. Surprised? Well, don’t be.
With technology running our lives every moment, it wasn’t going to be long before we turned to our mobile phones to be our doctor. From checking blood sugar, keeping a track of your menstrual cycle, recording your pregnancy from start to end to calculating your temperature - your phone does it all.
These apps cater to the needs of all patients -- whether they are suffering from diabetes, asthma or migraine.
Here goes a handy list for you to consult
Headache app: This application does what its name suggests - no, not give you a headache, but keep a track of your headaches. You can record days and times of instances of headache, the pain intensity and location, symptoms and medications.
Diabetacare: Specifically for diabetes patients, this app lets them check their blood sugar levels, their calorie intake and also suggests the proper diet to be followed.
Fever tracker: This application lets you record your body temperature, make day wise entries, add history and even lets you share the details with your doctor.
Symptomate: This is like carrying your doctor in your pocket. Just enter your details, answer some questions about your symptoms and there is the result. You will also get a virtual diagnosis report on your email and will be able to check the list of potential conditions.
Pulse Monitor: The most interesting of all applications, this allows you to calculate your pulse using your phone. Just place your hand over the camera and in a few seconds Pulse Monitor gives you the numbers. The app gives you a real time update of your heart beat, which is used to calculate the BPM (Beats per minute) of your heart rate.
Epocrates: While there are dozens of apps that let you be your own doctor, this one is for the doctors. The new age version of the Physician’s Desk Reference, this gives doctors all the information they need right at their fingertips. From basic drug information, to guiding them on the right dosage for children and adults to the latest medical news - this app is the best assistant to the doctor.
While these applications have regular users, doctors in the city don’t encourage them. “The relationship between a doctor and a patient is very important. These applications lose the human touch that doctors lend to patient care,”says Dr CV Harinarayan, Director, Institute of Endocrinology, Sakra World hospital. He gives an example of diagnosis of fever saying that a fever can have many causes and more than one diagnosis and to correctly diagnose it, you need to see the patient. “Diagnosis without clinical examination is absurd,”he says. Though doctors are against the applications that diagnose, many of them say that those that monitor are good. “Monitoring your diet or your weight is a good thing in these apps. They help keep a check on yourself,”says Dr Sita Bhateja, obstetrician and gynaecologist.