There are a number of exceptional apps out this year, 2015 for iOS ( iPhone and iPad ) health and fitness. Below is a list of a few of my personal favorite apps that I think are unique and great to try.

Meditation & Yoga Apps

There are two great meditation apps out, Headspace and Smiling Mind.
Smiling Mind and Headspace both have iPhone apps and websites that a patient can access.

Both of these apps are great for stress relief for people who would like to meditate. Headspace gives ten free sessions then you need to pay for more sessions and Smiling Mind allows you to access all the meditation sessions for free.

Headspace was established in May 2010, by Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson. Puddicombe is a former Buddhist monk. Smiling Mind is a completely free app founded by Jane Martino October 2012.

Check out this great video from Andy:

Another great app for Yoga is Yoga Studio. It is an iPad and iPhone app only, they don’t have a website, but you won’t need it since the app is really focused on the mobility. The app is a one-time purchase, but it’s well worth it if you like doing Yoga. There are so many different sessions in the app that the price is an excellent deal.  I highly recommend this app to anyone who’s looking to try Yoga or active in doing Yoga but looking for great instructional videos with step-by-step Yoga techniques and classes.

Workout Apps

Runtastic is another great app that I’ve used in the past for jogging sessions it tracks everything in and around running: miles, tracks times, best times and worse times and speeds.

There are other apps like Strava,  I hear great things about it for biking as well as running.

Two very focused iPhone apps that are great are Sit Ups Pro and Squats Pro. Both of these apps are very simple and have one focus which makes it simple and easy to use. The apps don’t confuse you with too many options. You know exactly what they do.

Do you have 7 minutes? There is a whole movement around 7-minute workouts, here are a few:

• 7 Minute Workout “Seven” with High Intensity Interval Training Challenge By Perigee
• 7 Minute Workout By Wahoo Fitness

In a short amount of time you can get a great workout in! These apps have great quick training sessions.

I also highly recommend this up though it is a little bit more intense and the meditation and yoga apps I recommended.

Sometimes you need to time a workout, one great app that I highly recommend is an app called Timer+, you can set a timer for how long you’re going to work out or howlongyou’re going to be jogging for, or whatever workout you’re doing. E.g.: Use Timer+ to time workout sessions say a 20-minute workout session or 30-minute workout session.

Weight and Calorie Apps

There are two great weight and calories apps. MyFitnessPal and LoseIt!. LoseIt! and MyFitnessPal are great for tracking your weight. LoseIt! also has a social network you can join for support. Both of the apps are free and have access via the web and iOS.

Health Journaling Apps

One of the best journaling apps for iOS and for Mac I’ve seen to document your day is an app called Day One. This app is iOS focused but also completely mac focused. I like this simple interface and how simplistic it is to journal daily from this app, it’s a great app for anyone who wants to journal daily about health and fitness progress.

Some of the apps above are connected directly to Apple’s Health which means that the data that you enter into the apps from sync into Apple’s Health. You can also sync this data into your personal health record. onpatient is an app that can take this data and share it with your physician if you so choose. onpatient also allows you to message with you physician, if you have a question about a medical bill, schedule an appointment or need a prescription refill try onpatient.

So if you want to track something and also have it in your personal health record you can now do that … and you can share that with you doctor.

Article by Daniel Kivatinos, COO and cofounder, drchrono Daniel drives direction, brand vision, and business strategy for drchrono. Daniel’s focus has been in the technology space since 2001, as a software engineer and entrepreneur. Daniel holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Computer Science & Psychology from Stony Brook University.

 

Consumer Accountable Care – Today’s mobile devices allow consumers to become more accountable for their care. As high deductible healthcare plans become more popular, consumers are empowered now more than ever with access to reviews of physicians and can also track comparison of prices for healthcare procedures. Education about how to manage their own health is now easier, so patients are savvier and more informed with access to more apps and websites.

Here are a few examples of some popular tools and apps that consumers are using to be more responsible and own their health:

• Jawbone Up, fitbit, Misfit’s Shine, Basis Watch, iHealth blood pressure cuff and glucose meters. Also, Castlight Health, a healthcare price comparison tool.

Less is Now More – As physicians get paid less, physicians are finding tools to do more with less. For example, with just an iPad a physician can run its practice, accessing and managing patient data. According to a recent article in The USA Today, as the demand for healthcare goes up and as a shortage of 45,000 primary care physicians is predicted by 2020, more non-physicians are doing some of the work, such as nurse practitioners, pharmacists and physician assistants. Quality metrics software pushed through EHRs can also simplify digital health and assist with reimbursements, as well as quality and efficiency standards.

There is so much data coming at physicians on paper, they generally skim a medical record, sometimes missing key information. Organizing all of the data in a digital format flagging the most critical, relevant data pertaining to a patient is a key time saver. The reality of the situation is that with paper medical records this workflow isn’t possible.

Better Connections – As healthcare companies collaborate more, healthcare connections via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) will allow more diversification from where the data is coming from, with more healthcare moving to the cloud. We will see new trends and insights from this combination of data that were not possible before. For example, epidemics, pandemics, genetics, drug and health trends can be tracked and reviewed in real time.

Older non-cloud based architectures shield data into silos and over the next several years we will see less and less non-cloud based infrastructures. One of the primary ways medical data is still being moved today is via the fax machine, which is archaic and hard to manage. Smartphones and tablets like the iPad and iPhone are becoming more powerful as a business tool, with more health apps managed from devices in the medical facilities. We predict more and more patients will track their personal health data through smartphones over the next year.

Data, Data and More Data – As more data is moved to the cloud, an improvement in decision-making will have to happen. Here are a couple instances where more streamlined data can really make a difference:

• Clinical trials – Right now, clinical trial researchers are hard pressed to find good qualified candidates, but as more data is available, clinical trial drug companies and patients will be able to connect faster then ever before.
• Real-time dynamic decision insights – Having massive amounts of data reviewed by super computers to see new insights is a reality and this will help in dynamic medical settings for improved decision-making. One example of this is the IBM Watson super computer, which has an API and is said to be able to diagnose at the level of a second or third year medical student, so that healthcare companies and institutions can leverage the data to get a broader picture of a patient.

Moving to Meaningful Use Stage 2 – The medical community is transitioning to Stage 2 and mobile EHR providers are making sure that their platforms for the iPad, iPhone and cloud are updated and ready to take advantage of the new government standards that go into effect on October 1, 2014. Stage 2 includes advanced clinical processes and interoperability standards allowing for a more consistent flow of data between health plans, patients and providers. Consistent data will allow for a smooth transition of care, more continuous care, less unnecessary repetition for the patients and using technology to remedy issues in our healthcare industry. It’s important for the medical community to work with a trusted EHR provider that will offer a seamless transition to the next phase.

Meaningful use Stage 2 is all about doctors and patients being able to communicate better, this is something that is much needed to streamline process and improve inefficiencies in the medical industry.

Genomics – This is a promising new field of digital health technology and many new apps are being developed to cover this area. Genomics offers better preventative tests to predict and personalize a person’s healthcare. For example:

• Personalized medicine – As we begin to understand more about genomics of each individual person, medicine can become more personalized based on that one person. This also includes learning about new cybernetics, such as regenerative medicine for artificial organs.
• Predictive diagnostics – Genomics will allow us to be more aware of things we are more susceptible too and how to create preventative care plans.

This was a post I wrote on Electronic Health Reporter.