Your smartphone is a powerful and flexible tool for
capturing information related to your health. There are various ways
that your phone can do this, such as popular apps or devices described
below. Some apps span multiple categories, allowing the user several
avenues for capturing health information.
Manually Enter the Information
This
is the most primitive way to track your health information, whether
it’s your blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, energy level, or
medication list.
You can use your phone's native apps
(e.g. Notes on iPhone) or a cloud storage service like Dropbox or Google
Drive. Evernote can be used to store just about any type of
information, but it's also integrated with health sensor devices (see
below).
Tracking diet and exercise is easy with the MyFitnessPal and SparkPeople
apps. (Like many other popular diet and exercise apps, they also offer
other ways to track your information, such as nutrition barcode scanning
and linkage with activity tracking devices.)
Capture Information With the Phone’s Sensors
The
sensors built in to your phone can automatically capture selected types
of health information when they are linked to suitable apps. Thus, the
apps take advantage of the phone's stock hardware to deliver specialized
health-related functions.
A popular example is tracking physical activity. Numerous apps (e.g. RunKeeper) use the phone's GPS to track outdoor activities like running, walking, or walking.
A handful of apps (e.g. Zombie, Run!)
also harness the accelerometer to track indoor activities like
treadmill running, which would be impossible to measure with the GPS.
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock uses
the accelerometer, with the phone placed under your mattress, to
monitor the depth of your sleep. The manufacturer claims that the app
wakes you up within a 30 minute window of a light sleep phase.
However, the quality and depth of sleep does not always correlate with movement, especially for people with sleep disorders.
The camera is another useful sensor. Azumio's Instant Heart Rate app
measures your heart rate when you place your fingertip over the camera
lens. It works by sensing slight changes in the color of your fingertip
which occur with each heartbeat. A few apps use the camera lens to
estimate the oxygen saturation (concentration) in your blood, but they
tend to be poorly rated in app stores, with users noting that the
readings aren't accurate when compared to dedicated oxygen saturation
sensors.
As mentioned above, many nutrition apps use the camera to
scan food labels and import the calories and nutrient content into your
food log. This is quick and painless way to track food, as long as they
have the labels.
Capture Information With a Separate Health Sensor
While
the smartphone itself is a wonder of modern technology, it's greatest
potential for health tracking may lie in the ability to connect to
separate sensors.
Here are a few devices you can connect with your phone to track health information:
- Activity trackers like the Fitbit, Jawbone, Spark, and dozens of others
- Blood pressure monitor. [Read more about how to choose a blood pressure monitor.]
- Glucose meter. [Read more about health technology for diabetes.]
- Pulse oximeters for measuring heart rate and oxygen saturation.
- Weight scale.
- Heart rhythm monitor, like the FDA-approved AliveCor device
- Peak flow meter for monitoring asthma control
Comprehensive platforms like Apple's Health app make it easy to tie all this information together.
Link to Your Electronic Health Records
Much of your health information may be stored in electronic health records (EHRs) maintained
by your health care providers. Many EHRs now allow patients to access
information stored in EHRs, such as vital signs, medications, test
results, appointments, and visit summaries. You can access these through
a patient portal on your phone or download it with the Blue Button function.
[Mention of a commercial product or service does not constitute an endorsement.]
