Medic ID

Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - latimes.com - Posted Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 UTC +00:00

American Heart Assn.'s Pocket First Aid and CPR app. (Jive Media) |By Francesca Lunzer Kritz, Special to the Los Angeles Times "Is there an app for that?" When it comes to consumer healthcare applications for smart phones, the answer, increasingly, is yes. There are now close to 6,000 consumer health apps, according to a review published in March by mobihealthnews, which reports on the mobile health industry, and more are being added every day. Many are free, or cost $1 to $10 to download. Some physicians are concerned about the reliability of the medical information provided by many of these apps, which offer advice and information on a wide array of health topics, including how to find a doctor, first aid for an emergency and exercise instructions. And they worry that consumers could follow an app's guidance for, say, monitoring high blood pressure, and leave it at that — forgoing visits Read More