We’ve all made the mistake of Googling our symptoms and being faced with a potential life threatening diagnosis that is somewhat over-egged. As convenient as it is to simply punch your symptoms into Google, the go-to genius for so many of our everyday queries: there are many more options available via your trusty smartphone (that may be less panic inducing!) websites and apps, that are designed for easy use and quick response time.

Whether you’re simply looking to monitor your general health and fitness or wanting to receive an online consultation from a trained professional, the options are becoming endless. There are even ways in which you can listen to your unborn child’s heartbeat through your phone!

Based on usability, reviews, appearance, results and, finally, personal experience I have pulled together some of the most popular and innovative technologies out there today:

Fitness and Nutrition

Fitness and nutrition apps are a good place to start, as looking after yourself from the outset can help to keep future health hazards at bay. These apps are all designed to make exercise fun, measurable and competitive.

Strava

One of the industry leaders is Strava, millions of cyclists and runners use the app to track their individual performance as well as using it to compete with their community and share snaps of their achievements.

Strava has created Strava Metro to make fitness related activities across multiple cities better! Metro anonymizes and aggregates the data uploaded by millions of people weekly and then partners with departments of transportation and city planning groups to improve infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Zombies, Run!

Another great fitness app, for those who may need a little more encouragement to get those legs moving is Zombies, Run!

Zombies, Run! became the highest-grossing Health & Fitness app on ‘The App Store’ within two weeks of its initial release. With 1 million users, and 200 different challenges available you are guaranteed endless frightening fun.

Myfitnesspal

With a database of over 3,282,000 different types of food, you can’t go wrong with Myfitnesspal for nutritional support and guidance. Working as a digital diary Myfitnesspal can be used for calorie tracking, exercise logging as well opening the door to a supportive online community.

Earlier this year statistics pulled from Myfitnesspal users showed that on average the most successful users (i.e ones within 5% of their target weight) were not succeeding in approaching their weight loss goal by eating less, carbs, sugar and fat.. The deal breaker in the diet was shown to be an increase in fiber: ‘Successful users ate a whopping 29% more fiber on average’.

Online GP’s

These days you don’t even have to go into a doctor’s surgery to talk to a trained professional, as there are apps and websites available to you whether you’re looking for a consultation or a refill of your prescriptions.

Ask a Doctor

Ask a Doctor is an app and website that provides a primary or secondary opinion service, allowing patients access to GPs 24 hours a day, globally. There are currently 30,000 registered doctors specialising in multiple fields with over 3 million registered users.

Babylon

Babylon takes the process one step further, by giving patients real-time access to a GP who can then prescribe medication over a video call.

The BBC have described Babylon‘s service: “As easy as ordering a cab on your smartphone.”

Digital Therapies

Last but not least, the technology that is out there designed to provide support for all your mental health needs.

Headspace

Headspace provides guided meditation online through a website and app, describing themselves as – ‘Your gym membership for the mind’.

According to the scientific studies around headspace it has the ability to help with stress, creativity, focus, anxiety and relationships.

Anxiety and depression are becoming increasingly more common, in Britain alone 9% of people meet the criteria for diagnosis. 4-10% of people in England are said to experience depression in their lifetime, making the availability of apps such as Headspace even more vital.

Conclusion

The power in your pocket has grown significantly over the last few years.There are so many options out there when it comes to apps available, but there is always room in the market for new and exciting initiatives.

Do you have an idea or something revolutionary that has potential to disrupt a particular industry? MintTwist can help to bring your idea to life.

Original Article by Lydia Gray, MintTwist.