The mobile health market has shown a ‘healthy’ uptick in consumer adoption in recent years. As the fastest growing market in mobile apps, smartphone app and wearable tech enthusiasts are finding an increasing number of available options to choose from. And these apps and tiny trackers are making big waves in the technology field. With emerging technologies from Apple, Google, and an explosive number of other new names, healthcare tracking apps are evolving right before our eyes at a record pace. Let’s take a look at the current apps on the market and peek into what the future has in store.
Mobile Apps
Couch to 5k
The C25k mobile app helps beginning runners reach their goal of running a 5k by training them over a series of weeks. In just 30 minutes a day for 3 days over nine weeks, the app has helped countless couch potatoes find their runner’s high.
Fooducate
The Fooducate app allows users to reference and compare foods on the spot while they are running their errands. Grocery shopping can require a little less guessing by using the Fooducate app to scan barcodes and learn about healthier alternatives before placing a product in your basket. This app also helps steer you away from sugars, fats, and GMO ingredients.
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal integrates with many wearable tech and mobile apps including the Jawbone UP and the Fitbit. This app helps you keep track of your calories throughout the day – it even counts activity recordings from your wearable tech toward your daily calorie allotment.
Wearable Tech
Wrist Bands
The FitBit, Jawbone UP, and Nike Fuelband trackers are all equal contenders in their offerings. They monitor distance, sleep patterns, activities, help you track your food and water intake, and help you set goals for yourself. With a simple and accurate wristband, users can keep track of how much exercise they are getting throughout their day, just by glancing at their wrist. If you would rather not sport your tech on your wrist, there are a wide variety of pedometers to choose from, including the Fitbit Zip, Basis B1, Withings Pulse, Lumo Lift, Jawbone UP Move, and more. There is even a wearable tech strip, the FitLinxx AmpStrip, which you place on your torso using replaceable adhesives – allowing you to track your fitness all day, unnoticed.
Watches
Apple, Withings, and Garmin are all breaking through the wristwatch’s reputation of yesteryear. Now weight, body fat and water composition, heart rate, distance, and more can all be tracked along with the time of day. Smart watches combine a classic design and function with a more health-conscious attitude, providing you with all the bells and whistles of a comprehensive health app right where you need it.
Interoperability
Interoperability is a buzzword that is being echoed far and wide across the healthcare landscape. As electronic health records in hospitals and ambulatory practices begin to share data, the entire nation is moving towards a cohesive communication platform. Healthcare tracking apps are no exception in this evolution. Mobile apps are already being used to track things such as when patients take pills, check blood sugar, and eat meals, and soon enough doctors will be able to monitor the vital statistics of their patients in real-time, wherever they may be.
Healthcare tracking apps are a budding industry that is quickly picking up speed and attention. And although they are beginning to participate in this interoperability by means of partnerships with calorie counters and other data aggregation resources, they still have a long way to go in an effort to plug into the social healthcare network as a whole. But the future looks bright, and soon enough patients and providers will be exchanging data seamlessly and moving toward a more comprehensive health monitoring system. Watch out world, a pioneering surge of interconnectivity in healthcare information technology is on its way.
